The Nigerian economy has exited recession in the second quarter of 2017 after five consecutive quarters of contraction since the first quarter of 2016.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Tuesday that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.55 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter, up from the –1.49 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2016 and the –0.91 per cent (revised from -0.52 per cent) recorded in the first quarter of 2017.
The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, had in an interview with the Bloomberg recently hinted that the country could be out of recession by the second quarter.
“We might be getting out of recession in the second quarter… If it doesn’t happen in the second quarter, it will be a much reduced negative,” Kale predicted.
Analysis of the report showed that during the second quarter of 2017, aggregate GDP stood at N26.99 trillion in nominal terms, up from N23.55 trillion in the second quarter of 2016, resulting in a Nominal GDP growth of 14.60 per cent.
The oil sector was estimated to have averaged at 1.84 million barrels per day, which is 0.15 million barrels higher than the daily average production recorded in the first quarter of June while the non-oil sector, which was driven by Agriculture, finance and insurance, electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply and other services grew by 0.45 per cent in real terms.
This is 0.83 per cent higher than the rate recorded in second quarter 2016 and -0.28 per cent lower than the rate recorded in first quarter of 2017.
