GDP rises by 0.51% in Q1 — NBS

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 0.51 percent (year-on-year) in the first quarter of 2021, marking two consecutive quarters of growth.

This followed the negative growth rates recorded in the second and third quarters of 2020,  latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

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The GDP report for the first quarter of 2021 released on Sunday indicated that the first quarter 2021 growth rate was slower than the 1.87 percent growth recorded in the first quarter of 2020 but higher than 0.11 percent recorded in fourth quarter 2020.

The NBS described the latest GDP rate as “indicative of a slow but continuous recovery.”

Nevertheless, quarter on quarter, real GDP grew at -13.93 percent  in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.

The NBS described the slower quarter-to-quarter growth as “reflecting a generally slower pace of economic activities at the start of the year.”

In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N40.02 trillion in nominal terms.

Meanwhile, the report showed that in the first quarter of 2021, average daily oil production stood at 1.72 million barrels per day (mbpd), or 0.35mbpd lower than the average daily production of 2.07mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2020 but higher than the production volume of 1.56mbpd recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The oil sector recorded a real GDP growth rate of –2.21 percent (year-on-year) in Q1 2021 indicating a decrease of –7.27 percent points relative to the growth rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020 (5.06%).

In terms of contribution to aggregate GDP, the Oil sector accounted for 9.25 percent of aggregate real GDP in Q1 2021, slightly lower than 9.5 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2020 but higher than in the preceding quarter, where it contributed 5.87 percent.