By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Data released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) attributed the decline in Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third and fourth quarters of last year to both household consumption and government consumption expenditures.
The stat office said in the report yesterday that in real terms, year-on-year growth in GDP declined by 2.34 percent and 1.73 percent, in the third and fourth quarter respectively, continuing the negative growth trend from the first half of 2016.
The NBS further said National Disposable Income recorded a strong growth in comparison to the GDP in the second half of 2016 in real terms.
It said this was partly as a result of increases in “other net transfers from the rest of the world.”
NBS noted that the year-on-year growth in domestic Compensation of Employees declined in real terms, while the operating surplus declined in the third and fourth quarters but grew overall in real terms in 2016.
Overall, the economic environment which entered a recession in the first half of 2016, continued to remain challenging in the second half of the year.
The rise in inflation and decline in compensation of employees, contributed to the reduction of household consumption expenditure.
In both the third and fourth quarter of 2016, growth in the market price GDP was slightly slower than growth in the basic price GDP, as a result of a decline in net taxes on products in the third quarter (of 5.04 percent year-on-year in real terms) and a growth of 6.99 percent in the fourth quarter.
Although growth in total real GDP declined by 1.58 percent in real terms between 2015 and 2016 and grew 7.80 percent in nominal terms, this hides differing trends in the growth rates of its components.
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