Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product, GDP rose to 1.87% in the first quarter of this year. The bureau, in a report released on Monday, May 25, 2020, said the economy reflected the earliest signs of disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, sharp decline on oil prices and restrictions on international trade.
“The performance recorded in Q1 2020 represents a drop of 0.23% points compared to Q1 2019 and 0.68% points compared to Q4 2019, reflecting the earliest effects of the disruption, particularly on the non-oil economy." In the second quarter of 2019, Nigeria’s actual GDP at basic prices expanded by 2.12 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Growth accelerated further in the third and fourth quarters by 2.28 per cent and 2.55 per cent respectively.
The stable increase in quarterly growth led to an annual growth rate of 2.27 per cent for 2019, compared to 1.91% in 2018 on a year-on-year basis. When compared to the second quarter of 2018, the performance in 2019 showed growth up to 0.61per cent while the third and fourth quarters were 0.47 per cent and 0.17 per cent higher respectively than the corresponding quarters of 2018.
