Nigeria’s GDP recorded 0.51% growth in Q1, 2021-NBS
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) grew by 0.51 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021) despite of the slower pace of economic activities in the period.
The NBS disclosed this in the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report for Q1 2021, released on its website on Sunday in Abuja.
The bureau said this marked two consecutive quarters of growth, following negative growth rates recorded in the second and third quarters of 2020.
It said the Q1 2021 growth rate was slower than the 1.87 per cent growth rate recorded in Q1 2020 but higher than 0.11 per cent recorded in Q4 2020, indicative of a slow but continuous recovery.
“Nevertheless, quarter-on-quarter, real GDP grew at -13.93 percent in Q1 2021 compared to Q4 2020, reflecting a generally slower pace of economic activities at the start of the year.”
The NBS said that in the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N40.01 trillion in nominal terms.
It added that the performance was higher when compared to the first quarter of 2020 which recorded aggregate GDP of N35.64 trillion, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth rate of 12.25 per cent.
Also, the nominal GDP growth rate in Q1 2021 was higher, relative to 12.01 per cent growth recorded in the first quarter of 2020 as well as the 10.07 percent growth recorded in the preceding quarter.
Classifying the Nigerian economy into oil and non-oil sectors, NBS revealed that the oil sector, in Q1, average daily oil production stood at 1.72 million barrels per day (mbpd).
This, it said, was lower than the average daily production of 2.07mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2020 by 0.35mbpd but higher than the production volume of 1.56mbpd recorded in Q4 2020.
It added that the real growth of the oil sector was 2.21 per cent (year-on-year) in Q1, indicating a decrease of 7.27 per cent relative to the growth rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020.
“Compared to Q4 2020 which recorded –19.76 percent growth rate, growth in Q1 was higher by 17.55 percent.
“Quarter-on-quarter, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of 35.65 percent in Q1.
“In terms of contribution to aggregate GDP, the oil sector accounted for 9.25 percent of aggregate real GDP in Q1, slightly lower than 9.5 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2020 but higher than in the preceding quarter, where it contributed 5.87 percent.”
The NBS said the non-oil sector grew by 0.79 percent in real terms in Q1, which was –0.75 percent lower compared to the rate recorded in the same quarter of 2020 and -0.89 percent lower than rates recorded in Q4 2020.
However, growth in the non-oil sector was driven mainly by the Information and Communication (Telecommunication) sector.
