Nigeria’s economy expanded at a slightly faster pace in the third quarter as oil production increased.
The country recorded Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 2.84 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, compared with 2.35 percent in the second quarter, the latest report from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.
The increase was higher by 0.49 percent compared to the second quarter, yet lower by 3.38 percent points from 6.23 percent growth recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2014.
Oil output jumped to 2.17 million barrels per day in the third quarter compared to 2.05 million barrels in the preceding quarter.
The country is struggling to cope with an almost 60 percent plunge in crude prices since June, last year. The oil industry rose 1.1 percent in the three months to the end of September, after contracting 6.8 percent in the previous quarter, the statistics agency said.
The non-oil industry, which makes up 90 percent of GDP, increased 3.1 percent in the third quarter, down from 7.5 percent a year earlier.
Manufacturing fell 1.8 percent, the third consecutive quarterly contraction.
During the quarter, aggregate GDP stood at N24.3 trillion (in nominal terms) at basic prices.
Compared to the third quarter 2014 value of N22.9 trillion, nominal GDP was 6.02 percent higher. Nominal GDP growth was also higher relative to growth recorded in Q1 of 2015 by 0.85 percent points.
The economy can be more clearly understood according to the oil and non-oil sector classifications:
According to the report, growth in the non-oil sector was largely driven by the activities of crop production, financial services, telecommunications, and trade, among others.
The non-oil sector grew by 3.05% in real terms in the Third Quarter of 2015, 4.45 percent points lower from the corresponding quarter in 2014 and marginally lower from the Second Quarter of 2015.
In real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 89.73 percent to the nation’s GDP, marginally higher from shares recorded in the third quarter of 2014 which was 89.55 percent, but lower from the second quarter of 2015.
-Leadership
