Q3 2018: Nigeria’s Economy Expands After 1.81% Rise in GDP

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

In the third quarter of 2018, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria recorded a year-on-year increase of 1.81 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.

In its GDP numbers released this morning, the stats office said the growth recorded in Q3 2018 was more than the 1.17 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2017.

It was also higher than the 1.50 percent the GDP figure stood at in the second quarter of this year, when it contracted, raising fears that things might get worse.

In its report, the NBS said on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the real GDP growth in the period under review was 9.05 percent.

Also, in the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N33,368,049.14 million in nominal terms, higher when compared with the third quarter of 2017, which recorded a GDP aggregate of N29,377,674.03 million thus, presenting a positive year-on-year nominal growth rate of 13.58 percent.

This growth rate is higher relative to growth recorded in the third quarter of 2017 by 2.88 percent points and higher than the preceding quarter by 0.01 percent points with growth rates of 10.70 percent and 13.57 percent respectively.

“For clarity, the Nigerian economy has been classified broadly into the oil and non-oil sectors,” the stats office said in its report.

According to the NBS report, real growth of the oil sector was –2.91 percent year-on-year in Q3 2018, indicating a decrease of –25.94 percent points relative to rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2017.

However, it said growth increased by 1.04 percent points when compared to Q2 2018 which was –3.95 percent.

The report said during the period under consideration, Nigeria recorded an average daily oil production of 1.94 million barrels per day (mbpd), lower than the daily average production of 2.02mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2017 by -0.08mbpd but higher than that of the second quarter of 2018 production volume of 1.84mbpd by 0.10mbpd.

However, the non-oil sector grew by 2.32 percent in real terms during the reference quarter, higher by 3.08 percent points compared with the rate recorded same quarter of 2017 and 0.28 percent point higher than the second quarter of 2018.

This sector was driven this quarter mainly by Information and Communication, while other drivers were Agriculture, Manufacturing, Trade, Transportation and Storage and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services. In real terms, the stats said the non-oil sector contributed 90.62 percent to the nation’s GDP, higher from share recorded in the third quarter of 2017 recorded as 90.16 percent and lower than the second quarter of 2018 recorded as 91.45 percent.