The first quarter of 2018 started on a bright note as the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.95 percent (year-on-year) in real terms, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) GDP report released yesterday.
BusinessDay analysis of the NBS GDP report shows a stronger growth when compared with the first quarter of 2017 which recorded a growth of -0.91 percent indicating an increase of 2.87 percentage points
When compared to the preceding quarter, there was a decline of -0.16 percentage points from 2.11 percent. Quarter on quarter, real GDP growth was -13.40 percent.
This will be the fourth quarterly consecutive positive expansion since Africa’s largest economy exited recession in Q1, 2017 helped by increased oil production and prices, further improvements in foreign exchange liquidity and a rebound in non-oil activity.
NBS also noted that oil production estimates for the third and fourth quarters of 2017 had been revised and oil GDP for those quarters had been adjusted accordingly
