Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday said that the national economy grew by 2.27 per cent in 2019.
The annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 2.27 per cent represents an increase of 360 basis points over the growth rate of 1.91 per cent recorded in 2018.
The strong fourth quarter 2019 growth rate also represents the highest quarterly growth performance since the 2016 recession.
The GDPreport for the 2019 fiscal year also said that during the fourth quarter of 2019, Nigeria’s GDP grew by 2.55 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2018 which recorded a growth rate of 2.38 per cent, the NBS said this represents an increase of 0.17 percentage points and an increase of 0.27 percentage points when compared with the third quarter of 2019.
The real growth of the oil sector in Q4 2019 was 6.36 per cent (year-on-year), indicating an increase of 7.98 per cent points compared to the negative growth of 1.62 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
The report showed that the non-oil sector grew by 2.26 per cent in real terms in the fourth quarter, 0.44 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2018 but 0.42 per cent point higher than the Q3 growth rate.
Nigeria’s Oil sector GDP grew by 6.36 per cent in Q4 2019, 0.13 per cent point decrease compared to 6.49 per cent recorded in Q3 2019 and 7.98 per cent points increase compared to -1.62 per cent in Q4 2018.
In terms of contribution, the oil sector contributed 7.32 per cent to the total real GDP in Q4 2019, up from 7.06 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter.
Meanwhile, the sector’s contribution to GDP went down when compared to 9.77 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2019.
It should be noted that in the fourth quarter of 2019, the average daily oil production was 2.00 million barrels per day (mbpd) which was 0.09mbpd increase compared to the daily average production of 1.91mbpd recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
However, it was 0.04mbpd lower than the production volume of 2.04mbpd recorded in the third quarter of 2019.
In real terms, the non-oil sector grew by 2.26 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019, which was 0.44 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in the same quarter of 2018 but 0.42 per cent point higher than the third quarter of 2019.
This sector during the fourth quarter of 2019, was driven mainly by Information & Communication (Telecommunications), Agriculture (Crop Production), Financial and Insurance Services (Financial Institutions), and Manufacturing.
In real terms, the Non-Oil sector contributed 92.68 per cent to the nation’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2019, lower from shares recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018 (92.94 per cent) but higher than the third quarter of 2019 (90.23 per cent).
Altogether, the annual contribution of the non-Oil sector stood at 91.22 per cent in 2019, 0.19 per cent point reduction compared to 91.41 per cent recorded in 2018.