Finally, Nigeria exits from recession

By Ihesiulo Grace

5 September 2017

News

After one year of declined economic activities, Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa has finally exited recession as data on the country’s Gross Domestic Product released on Tuesday shows that the economy grew at 0.55 per cent in the second quarter of 2017.

The Nigerian economy slipped into recession in early 2016 after contracting for two consecutive quarters.

This is 2.04 per cent higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 and higher by 1.46 per cent points from rate recorded in the preceding quarter.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which declared Nigeria’s worst recession in 29 years, attributes the economic recovery to the performance of four main economic activities comprising oil, agriculture, manufacturing and trade.

Oil GDP recovered significantly from -11.63 per cent in Q2 2016 to 1.64 per cent in Q2 2017, while Non-oil GDP grew marginally at 0.45 per cent.

Agriculture grew 3.01 per cent in Q2 2017, from 3.39 per cent in Q1 2017.

Manufacturing retained its positive growth for the second consecutive quarter in Q2 2017, growing at 0.64 percent, while trade which has a dominant share of GDP remained negative at -1.62 per cent.

Electricity and gas and financial institutions sectors also recorded strong growths OF 35.5 per cent.

Financial institutions saw an 11.78 per cent jump in Q2 2017, compared to 0.60 per cent in Q1 2017 and -13.24 per cent in Q2 2016.

The industry sector grew positively by 1.45 per cent in Q2 2017, after nine consecutive quarters of negative growth since Q4 2014.

The Statistician General of the Federation, Yemi Kale had in an interview, said that there was a likelihood that the economy exited recession in June 2017 but he was not sure because all the numbers had not been collated.

“Intutively, we might be getting out of recession in the second quarter but I can’t say until all the numbers are in.”

“If it doesn’t happen in the second quarter, it will be a much reduced negative and it will definitely happen in the third quarter unless we have a new round of shocks in the later weeks.”