The Presidency yesterday described as a welcome development the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, with oil, agriculture and industrial sectors leading the growth.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity (Office of the Vice-President), Laolu Akande, who stated this in a relase yesterday, said the new figures are clear indications of the ongoing progress recorded by the Nigerian economy.
Akande said the Buhari administration welcomes the new growth figures, and will continue to work diligently on a daily basis to ensure inclusive growth, to which we have always been committed through the active pursuit of a raft of policy initiatives, past and present, adding that such initiatives, include but not limited to the Social Investment Programmes, Anchor Borrowers Scheme, longstanding Budget Support Facilities to the States, plus other bailout packages, ensuring the comprehensive payment of workers’ salary & pension backlogs among others,’’ he added.
He said the Federal Government would be ramping up the implementation pace of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
Also commenting, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, said this development reinforced the exit of the nation’s economy from recession.
“The latest NBS GDP figures show that the Nigerian economy grew by 1.4 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017).
“This is a steady continuation of the positive growth of 0.55 per cent (now revised to 0.72 per cent) experienced in Q2 2017 and reinforces the exit from the 2016 recession.
According to him, the positive growth in the third quarters is consistent with the improvements in other indicators.
He noted that the foreign exchange reserves had risen to nearly 34 billion dollars while stock market and purchasing managers’ indices had also been positive.
He said: “The naira exchange rate has stabilised while inflation has declined to 15.91 per cent from 18.7 in January 2017.
“While inflation is not declining as fast as desirable, it is approaching the estimated target of 15.74 per cent for the year in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
“Agricultural growth was 3.06 per cent in the third quarter of 2017, maintaining the positive growth of the sector even when there was a slow-down in the rest of the economy.
“The industrial sector grew at 8.83 per cent mostly due to mining and quarrying. The oil sector grew very strongly as forecast in the ERGP and partly as a result of the policy actions in the plan to restore growth in the sector.
“The service sector is yet to recover but should soon begin to be positively affected by the improvements in the real economy and the effects of the dedicated and focused capital spending of over N1.2 trillion on infrastructure by the Federal Government.’’
Dipeolu expressed the hope that the economy would continue to grow given these developments and the reform, and improvements in the business environment shown by the upward movement of 24 places in the recently released World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Rankings.
According to the presidential aide, the overall picture that emerges is that the economy is on the path of recovery.
“As inflation trends downwards, and with steady implementation of the ERGP, real growth should soon be realised across all sectors in a mutually reinforcing manner,’’ he said
Nigeria’s economy has improved further with a 1.40 per cent growth in the third quarter of 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a report released yesterday.
In the 89-page report titled “Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report (Q3 2017)”, the NBS notes that “this is the second time of such positive development since Nigeria exited recession in the second quarter.”
According to the NBS, the growth is 3.74 per cent points higher than the 2.34 per cent rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 and 0.68 per cent higher from the 0.72 per cent rate recorded in the second quarter of the same year.
The figures are based on revised data for crude oil production for the second quarter of 2017.
“In the period under review, oil production is estimated to have averaged 2.03million barrels per day (mbpd), 0.15million barrels higher than the revised daily average production recorded in the second quarter of 2017 (revised from 1.84mbpd to 1.87mbpd).
“Oil production during the quarter was higher by 0.42million barrels per day relative to the corresponding quarter in 2016, which recorded an output of 1.61mbpd.
“Real growth of the oil sector was 25.89% (year-on-year) in Q3 2017; this represents an increase of 48.92% relative to rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016. Growth also increased by 22.36% when compared to Q2 2017 which was revised from 1.64% to 3.53%.
“Quarter-on-Quarter, the oil sector grew by 21.10% in Q3 2017.
“As a share of the economy, the oil sector contributed 10.04% of total real GDP in Q3 2017, up from figures recorded in the corresponding period of 2016 and up from the preceding quarter, where it contributed 8.09% and 9.04% to GDP respectively,” NBS stated.
Sectors that led growth in the non-oil sector which grew by 0.3 percent to stand at – 0.76 percent from its previous 0.79 percent are agriculture, other services and electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply.
“In real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 89.96 % to the nation’s GDP, lower than the share recorded in the third quarter of 2016 (91.91 %) and in the second quarter of 2017 ( 90.96 %).
“Telecommunications & information services under information and communication• sector contracted by – 5.68 % in Q 3 2017 from – 1.92 % in Q 2 2017 and 0.95 % in Q 3 2016, ” the report stated.