Samuel Bello, Abuja
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Monday, said the nation recorded a growth of 1.95 per cent in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2018. The figure, the bureau said, showed a stronger growth when compared with the -0.91 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, indicating an increase of 2.87 per cent points.
In the GDP report for the first quarter released yesterday in Abuja, NBS stated that the aggregate GDP stood at N28,464,322.01 million in the first quarter of 2018. The performance was higher when compared to the first quarter of 2017, which recorded a nominal GDP aggregate of N26,028,356.03 million thus presenting a positive year-on-year nominal growth rate of 9.36 per cent.
“This rate of growth is, however, relative to growth recorded in the same period last year by -7.70 per cent points at 7.06 per cent but higher than the processing quarter by 2.14 per cent points at 7.22 per cent.
The statistics office said that the agriculture sector grew by 5.80 per cent year-on-year in nominal terms, showing a decline of 4.01 per cent points and 4.33 per cent points from Q1 2017 and Q4 2017 respectively.
“Crop is expectedly the major driver of the sector. This is evident as it accounts for 85.28 per cent of overall nominal growth of the sector. In the first quarter of 2018, agriculture contributed 17.42 per cent to nominal GDP. This figure is lower than the rate recorded for the first quarter of 2017 and the fourth quarter of 2017 at 18 per cent and 21.93 per cent respectively.
“The agricultural sector in the first quarter of 2018, grew by 3.00 per cent year-on-year, in real terms a decrease of 0.38 per cent points from the corresponding period of 2017 also a decrease by 1.23 per cent points from the preceding quarter.
