The Nigeria economy recorded a GDP growth rate of 1.81% year-on-year for the third quarter of the year according to statistics released by National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
Announcing this on its website, the bureau said the 1.81% represented an increase over the growth rate of 1.5 per cent which the economy recorded in the second quarter of this year.
The report stated, “The nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.81% (year-on-year) in real terms in the third quarter of 2018. Compared to the third quarter of 2017 which recorded a growth of 1.17%, there is an increase of 0.64% points. The second quarter of 2018 had a growth rate of 1.50% showing a rise of 0.31% points.”
The report said in the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N33,3tr in nominal terms and stated that this performance is higher when compared to the third quarter of 2017 which recorded a GDP aggregate of N29.3tr thus, presenting a positive year on year nominal growth rate of 13.58%.
The NBS report explained that growth in the non-oil sector in the third quarter was mainly driven by information and communication. Other drivers of growth for the sector are agriculture, manufacturing, trade, transportation and storage and professional, scientific and technical services.
In real terms, the report said the non-oil sector contributed 90.62 per cent to the nation’s GDP, higher than the 90.16 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2017.
The 90.62 per cent contribution of the non-oil sector to economic output was however; lower than the second quarter 2018 figure of 91.45 per cent.
