Nigeria’s economic slows down by 0.16% second quarter

Nigeria’s economy grew year-on-year in the second quarter of 2019 by 1.94 per cent, riding on the back of stable oil prices to push the half-year (H1) growth to 2.02 per cent , Nigeria’s bureau of statistics said on Tuesday, but when compared to 2.10 per cent growth  recorded in the first quarter of 2019, the second quarter real growth rate indicates a decline of 0.16 per cent point.

The decline in the second quarter may be due to the dip in crude oil production as the production slowed to 1.98 million per day as against 1.99 million recorded in the preceding quarter.

The oil sector grew by 5.15 per cent while the non-oil saw a 1.64 per cent increase during the quarter.

The Federal Office of Statistics said the growth in the non-oil sector was driven by information and communication, agriculture, mining and transportation sectors.

However, the Q2 growth is good enough to push growth in H1 of 2019 up by 0.33 per cent more than the 1.69 per cent recorded for the half-year of 2018.

During the quarter, aggregate GDP stood at N34,944,151.61 million in nominal terms, an increase of 13.83 per cent over the performance in the second quarter of 2018 and 9.8 per cent over the preceding quarter.

Analysis on quarter on quarter shows that the real GDP increased by 2.85 per cent compared to a decline of –13.69 per cent in the preceding period.

The performance observed in Q2 2019 follows an equally strong first-quarter performance and was likely aided by a successful political transition.

Nigeria’s central bank projected a 3 per cent growth for the economy in 2019. But the country has been unable to grow beyond 3 per cent in the last four years.