Nigeria’s 2.3% GDP growth indicates appreciable improvement in economic development-Presidency

Motolani Oseni

The Presidency has observed that the latest Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 2.38 per cent for the Fourth Quarter (Q4), 2018 showed an appreciable improvement in the growth performance of the economy. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Tuesday that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.38 per cent in real terms in the last quarter of 2018. Reacting to the new NBS figures, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, in a statement issued by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity Office of the Vice President, stated that it is an indication of the effectiveness of the economic policies of the present administration. Dipeolu pointed out that the GDP figure of 2.3 per cent for the last quarter in 2018 reflected continuous growth. According to the statement, notably, the growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018 (Q4 2018) was higher than both the growth of 1.81 per cent in Q3 2018 and in the corresponding fourth quarter of 2017. Indeed, quarter-on-quarter growth from Q3 2018 to Q4 2018 was 5.31 per cent, which signals a great potential for a higher annual growth rate. “In annual terms, the growth rate more than doubled in 2018, rising to 1.93 per cent as compared to 0.82 per cent in 2017, again reflecting the strong momentum of growth. “Also notable is the fact that growth in Q4 2018, and indeed for the whole year, owed a great deal to the performance of the non-oil sector. The non-oil sector grew at 2.7 per cent in Q4 2018 as compared to 1.14 per cent in the oil sector. The non-oil sector also grew by 2 per cent in the whole year 2018 which was considerably better than its growth in the whole of 2017, which was 0.47 per cent. The share of the non-oil sector in GDP was 92.94 per cent per cent while the oil sector contributed 7.06 per cent. Meanwhile, to the NBS report, the growth recorded in the quarter represented an increase of 0.55 per cent points when compared with the growth rate of the preceding quarter and 0.27 per cent points higher than the 2.11 per cent growth recorded in the corresponding period of 2017. When analysed on a quarterly basis, the real GDP growth was 5.31 per cent while it reflected an annual growth rate of 1.93 per cent in the year under review. The latest GDP growth rate also showed an increase of 1.09 per cent points when compared to the 0.82 per cent growth recorded in 2017.