Nigerian Economy Contracts 0.36% in Q1

The Nigerian economy contracted in the first quarter of the year after service sector that have been sustaining the economy plunged. This is the lowest quarterly decline since June 2004 second quarter report.

The economy contracted 0.36 percent year-on-year, which was 4.32 percent lower than the first quarter of 2015 and 2.7 percent lower than the growth recorded in the final quarter of 2015.

The first quarter aggregated gross domestic product stood at N 22,262,575.97 million (nominal GDP) at basic prices, but 5.80 percent higher when compared to the N 21,041,701.10 million nominal GDP recorded in the first quarter of 2015.  However, the nominal GDP growth fell 14.15 percent short of the levels recorded in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Oil production stood at 2.11 million barrels per day (mbpd), a 0.05 mbpd lower than what was obtained in the preceding quarter and 0.07 mbpd lower than first quarter of 2015 when production was 2.18 mbpd.

Year-on-year, the oil sector shrank 1.89 percent, following a 8.15 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2015. Growth increased by 6.39 percent relative to growth in the fourth quarter of 2015. The sector growth improved by 10.27 percent.

Overall, the oil sector contributed 10.29 percent to the total GDP, which is 2.24 percent higher than the shares contributed by the fourth quarter of 2015.

Non-oil sector plunged 0.18 percent in the first quarter of the year, while Trade, Crop production and Telecommunications & Information Services boosted growth of the sector, the sector was weighed upon by declines in Real Estate, Financial Institutions and Manufacturing.

The sector fell 5.77 percent lower than the corresponding quarter and 3.32 percent than the previous quarter. The non-oil sector contributed 89.71 percent to the national GDP.