By Dipo Olowookere
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday, February 27, 2018 revealed that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew in the fourth quarter of 2017 by 1.92 percent (year-on-year) in real terms, maintaining its positive growth since the emergence of the economy from recession in the second quarter of 2017.
According to the stats office, this growth is compared to a contraction of –1.73 percent recorded in Q4 2016 and a growth of 1.40 percent recorded in 2017.
It said further that quarter-on-quarter real GDP growth was 4.29 percent.
The NBS disclosed also that the year 2017 recorded a real annual growth rate of 0.83 percent higher by 2.42 percent than –1.58 percent recorded in 2016.
In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N31,209,137.74 million in nominal terms higher when compared to N29,169,058.99 million in Q4 2016, resulting in a Nominal GDP growth of 6.99 percent.
This growth, the stats office said, is lower relative to growth recorded in Q4 2016 at 12.49 percent, while nominally, 2017 recorded an annual growth rate of 12.05 percent higher by 4.25 percent compared to 2016 annual growth of 7.80 percent.
The broad classification into the oil and non-oil sectors will give a clearer depiction of the Nigerian economy.
NBS noted that in the period under review, oil production averaged at 1.91 million barrels per day (mbpd), -0.12 million barrels lower than the daily average production recorded in the third quarter of 2017.
It said oil production during the quarter was higher by 0.15 million barrels per day relative to the corresponding quarter in 2016, which recorded an output of 1.76mbpd.
Real growth of the oil sector was 8.38 percent (year-on-year) in Q4 2017. This represents an incline of 26.08 percent relative to rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016. Growth reduced by -17.50 percent when compared to Q3 2017 which was 25.89 percent.
Quarter-on-Quarter, the oil sector dropped by -25.52 percent in Q4 2017.
The annual growth of the oil sector stood at 4.79 percent higher than the previous year’s growth of -14.45 percent.
The Oil sector contributed 7.17 percent of total real GDP in Q4 2017, up from figure recorded in the corresponding period of 2016 and down from the preceding quarter, where it contributed 6.75 percent and 10.04 percent respectively.
The sector’s annual contribution was 8.68 percent in 2017 and 8.35 percent in 2016.
The non-oil sector grew by 1.45 percent in real terms during the reference quarter. This is higher by 1.78 percent point compared to the rate recorded same quarter, 2016 and 2.21 percent point higher than in the third quarter of 2017.
The non-oil sector recorded an annual growth of 0.47 percent compared to -0.22 percent in 2016. This sector was driven this quarter mainly by Agriculture (Crop), Trade and Transportation and storage.
In real terms, the Non-Oil sector contributed 92.83% to the nation’s GDP, lower from share recorded in the fourth quarter of 2016 (93.25 percent) but higher than in the third quarter of 2017 (89.96 percent). Annual contribution was 91.32 percent and 91.65 percent in 2016.
