Nigeria’s GDP Records 1.95% Growth in Q1 2018—NBS

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that Nigeria recorded 1.95 percent year-on-year growth in her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2018.

According to the data released by the stats office on Monday morning, the Q1 2018 figure showed a stronger growth when compared with the first quarter of 2017 which recorded a growth of -0.91 percent, indicating an increase of 2.87 percent points.

However, when compared quarter-on-quarter, the nation’s GDP decline by 0.16 percent points from 2.11 percent recorded in Q4 2017.

The NBS said quarter-on-quarter, the real GDP growth was -13.40 percent.

In its report today, the stats office said in Q1 2018, the aggregate GDP stood at N28,464,322.01 million in nominal terms.

This performance is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2017 which recorded a nominal GDP aggregate of N26,028,356.03 million thus, presenting a positive year-on-year nominal growth rate of 9.36 percent.

“This rate of growth is however lower relative to growth recorded in Q1 2017 by -7.70 percent points at 17.06 percent but higher than the preceding quarter by 2.14 percent points at 7.22 percent,” the report said.

It was disclosed that in the period under review, the nation recorded an average daily oil production of 2.0 million barrels per day (mbpd), higher than the daily average production recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017 by 0.05 mbpd.

Furthermore, real growth of the oil sector was 14.77 percent year-on-year in Q1 2018, representing an increase of 30.37 percent points relative to rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2017. Quarter-on-Quarter, the oil sector grew by 13.24 percent in Q1 2018 with the sector contributing 9.61 percent to total real GDP in Q1 2018, up from 8.53 percent and 7.35 percent recorded in the Q1 2017 and Q4 2017, respectively.

The NBS also said the non-oil sector grew by 0.76 percent in real terms during the reference quarter, higher by 0.04 percent point compared with the rate recorded same quarter of 2017 and 0.70 percent point lower than the fourth quarter of 2017.

This sector was driven mainly by Agriculture (Crop production); other drivers were financial institutions and insurance, Manufacturing, Transportation and Storage and Information and Communication.

In real terms, the Non-Oil sector contributed 90.39 percent to the nation’s GDP, lower than 91.47 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2017 and 92.65 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.