Nigeria has exited recession in the fourth quarter of 2020 after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
The country’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 0.11 percent year-on-year, according to the Nigeria’s fourth quarter GDP report published by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
The NBS report said, “Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.11 percent (year-on-year) in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing the first positive quarterly growth in the last three quarters.”
“Though weak, the positive growth reflects the gradual return of economic activities following the easing of restricted movements and limited local and international commercial activities in the preceding quarters,” the report added.
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“As a result, while the Q4 2020 growth rate was lower than growth rate recorded the previous year by –2.44 percentage points, it was higher by 3.74 percentage points compared to Q3 2020.
“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, real GDP growth was 9.68 percent indicating a second positive consecutive quarter-on-quarter real growth rate in 2020 after two negative quarters.
It said in 2020, the annual growth of real GDP was estimated at –1.92 percent, a decline of –4.20 percentage points when compared to the 2.27 percent recorded in 2019.
It added that an average daily oil production of 1.56 million barrels per day (mbpd) was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020; 0.11mbpd lower than the production recorded in the third quarter.
On a year-on-year basis, NBS stated that the oil sector grew by -19.76 percent while for the full year, the oil sector grew at –8.89 percent compared to 4.59 percent in 2019.
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It added that the oil sector contributed 5.87 percent to total real GDP in Q4 2020 while the the non-oil sector grew by 1.69 percent in real terms in Q4 2020, slower than the 2.26 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019, but better than the –2.51% growth rate recorded in Q3 2020.
For the full year of 2020, however, the report stated that the non-oil sector grew –1.25 percent compared to 2.06 percent in 2019.
