Nigeria still in recession, economy contracts by 0.52%

shakirudeen taiwo

May 24, 2017 9:51 AM

The economy is currently on recovery path as the economic numbers are much better than last quarter of 2016.

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria's Acting President

Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, is still in recession as the economy contracted by 0.52 percent year-on-year for the first quarter of 2017.

This figure was shown in the latest GDP report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Tuesday, May 23, 2017.

According to the Q1 2017 economic report, the economy is currently on recovery path as the economic numbers are much better than last quarter of 2016.

Oil sector also witnessed an increase in its productive as it contributed 8.9 percent to the country economy during the period under review. This is an improvement from 6.75 percent in the last quarter of 2016.

The improvement in the oil sector GDP can be attributed to the seemly increase in global oil price and reduction in oil and gas installations attacks in the Niger Delta region.

Dr Yemi Kale, Statistician General of the Federation said the improvement in the oil sector can be identified as one of the major factors for the current high growth rate of the Nigerian economy.

In the same vein, the non-oil GDP returned to positive growth of 0.72 percent in Q1 2017, which is considered its best performance in the last four quarters.

Dr Kale also noted that many sectors of the economy achieved growth in productivity but were able unable to pull the economy out of recession.

It would be recalled that Nigeria’s economy was declared to be in recession in the Q3 2016 (August 2016) after witnessing two consecutive quarter decline in its real GDP.

shakirudeen taiwo

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