STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER ON ECONOMIC MATTERS, DR. ADEYEMI DIPEOLU, ON THE 4TH QUARTER 2016 NIGERIAN GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT REPORT ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS
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| President Buhari |
The recently released data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by -1.30% in the fourth quarter of 2016. This translated into an estimated growth rate of -1.51% for the full year 2016. These figures reflect the slow-down in the economy for most of 2016 but also show that the recession may have bottomed out because of an improving trend in several key sectors.
Although the oil sector declined by -12.38% on a year on year basis, this was a relative improvement compared to the third quarter when the decline amounted to -22.01%. This outcome was due mainly to increases in production such that the quarter on quarter growth for the oil sector between the third and fourth quarters was 8.07%. The non-oil sector however declined by 0.33% after showing some resilience in the third quarter when it grew by 0.03% at the height of the recession.
