Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), grew by 5.01 per cent (Year-on-Year) in real terms in the Second Quarter of 2021 (Q2, 2021), marking three consecutive quarters of growth since the recession in 2020.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said this on Thursday in its Q2, 2021 GDP report published on its website.
According to it, the growth rate is higher than the -6.10 per cent growth rate recorded in Q2 2020 and the 0.51 per cent recorded in Q1 2021 year on year.
It said this indicated the return of business and economic activity near levels seen prior to the nationwide implementation of COVID-19 related restrictions.
The NBS said that the steady recovery observed since the end of 2020, with the gradual return of commercial activity and the local and international travel accounted for the significant increase in growth performance relative to Q2 2020 when nationwide restrictions took effect.
“Year to date, real GDP grew 2.70 per cent in 2021 compared to -2.18 per cent for the first half of 2020.
“Nevertheless, quarter on quarter, real GDP grew at -0.79 per cent in Q2 2021 compared to Q1 2021, reflecting slightly slower economic activity than the preceding quarter due largely to seasonality.”
The report said that in the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N39.12 trillion in nominal terms, higher than Q2 2020 with aggregate GDP of N34.023 trillion.
This, it said, indicated a year-on-year nominal growth rate of 14.99 per cent.
It also said that the nominal GDP growth rate in Q2 2021 was higher than the -2.80 per cent growth recorded in Q2 2020 when economic activities slowed sharply at the outset of the pandemic.
The report said that the Q2 2021 nominal growth rate was also higher than 12.25 per cent growth recorded in Q1 2021.
The NBS classified the Nigerian economy into the oil and non-oil sectors.
For the oil sector, it said that average daily oil production stood at 1.61 million barrels per day (mbpd) in Q2 2021, which was -0.19 mbpd lower than the average daily production of 1.81 mbpd recorded in the same period of 2020 and -0.10 mbpd lower than the 1.72 mbpd recorded in Q1 2021.
“Real growth of the oil sector was -12.65 per cent (year-on-year) in Q2 2021 indicating a decrease of -6.02 per cent points relative to the growth rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020.
