Nigerian Economy Out of Recession, But Still in Recovery Stage—NBS

By Dipo Olowookere

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday maintained that the Nigerian economy was out of recession.

The stats office made this clarification today in reaction to media reports quoting the Statistician General of the Federation/CEO of the agency, Mr Yemi Kale, as saying the country was still in economic mess.

The report published by some media outfits, excluding Business Post, had quoted an interview Mr Kale granted Arise TV as saying the nation was still in the economic downturn it slipped into in the second quarter of 2016.

Reacting to the reports via a statement on Monday morning, the NBS said at no time did its boss make such assertion.

However, it stressed that the economy was currently in the recovery stage, before finally getting into the stage of sustainable strong growth.

“Our attention has been drawn to publications across various media outlets which erroneously suggested the Statistician General of the Federation/CEO of the National Bureau of Statistics stated that the economy was still in recession in an interview on Arise Television.

“We want to emphasise and state categorically that the economy is out of recession and at no time did NBS or its CEO state otherwise as has been reported.

“You will recall that it was the same National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that announced the end of recession in Q2 2017 following the announcement of the first positive growth in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) following five quarters of contraction.

“Economic growth as measured by GDP has remained positive ever since; (0.72 percent in Q2 2017, 1.17 percent in Q3 2017, 2.11 percent in Q4 2017 and 1.95 percent in Q1 2018).

“The NBS has stated several times that the stages after an economic recession is an economic recovery, where the economy moves gradually following the end of a recession towards sustainable strong growth.

“This is the state of recovery that we are now and was alluded to by the Statistician General during his interview.

“That the economy is in the second stage, heading towards sustainable growth, which is the last stage cannot and should not be wrongly interpreted as the economy is still in a recession.

“We appreciate if such misinformation is corrected,” the statement said.