The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday that the nation’s economy received a positive performance report, with the gross domestic product (GDP) growth at about 2.38 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018,
The growth in real terms (year-on-year) rose from about 1.81 per cent in the previous quarter of the year, the report said.
The latest report coming few days to the forthcoming presidential election on Saturday, represents a 0.27 per cent points increase when compared to the growth rate of 2.11 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Also, the NBS said the report showed a rise of about 0.55 per cent points when compared with the growth rate in the third quarter of 2018, with real GDP growth on a quarterly basis of about 5.31 percent.
The implication of the fourth quarter growth performance is that real GDP grew at an annual growth rate of 1.93 percent in 2018, compared to 0.82 percent recorded in 2017, an increase of 1.09 per cent points.
Analysts said the latest GDP figures are “positively surprising”, as most prediction never expected the performance to be beyond 2.0 per cent average, considering the sluggish performance of the economy since exiting recession in 2017.
The statistician general of the federation, Yemi Kale, described the GDP performance as good, but inadequate to deal with the unemployment scourge in the economy.
The unemployment rate in the latest report by the statistics agency stood at about 23 per cent, with population growth outstripping that figure at 2.6 per cent per annum.
The latest figures defy both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank projections, which said the country’s economy was primed to grow at the rate of between 1.98 per cent and 2.0 per cent during the period.
With oil price showing positive growth momentum at the international oil market at an average of about $66.15 per barrel of sweet crude futures for January delivery on Friday, analysts say the future looks bright for the country’s economy.
Other indices are that crude oil production capacity is currently at an average of about 1.94 million barrels per day, while the exchange rate of the Naira to the dollar remains flat at about N361 as a result of the continued intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the market.
Details of the latest GDP numbers showed that during the last quarter of last year, aggregate nominal GDP stood at N35.2 trillion, which is higher than N31.3 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2017, a nominal growth rate of 12.65 per cent.
For 2018, the report said nominal GDP was recorded about N127.76 trillion, representing a nominal growth rate of 12.36 percent when compared to N113.7trillion in 2017.
