Nigeria’s Economic Woes Worsen As Gdp Shrinks By 2.24% In Q3 Of 2016

BEVERLY HILLS, November 21, (THEWILL) – A new set of data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has shown a decline of 2.24 per cent in the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of Nigeria in the third quarter of 2016, making it the third quarterly contraction to be consecutively experienced by the Nigerian economy.

The economy of the West African nation shrunk by 2.06 per cent in the third quarter as the country is hit by massive revenue shortage, foreign exchange shortage and volatile naria-dollar exchange rate.

Monday's data shows Nigeria's oil sector falls 22.01 per cent in the third quarter ended September, while non-oil sector grew a paltry 0.03 per cent.

“The nation's gross domestic product, GDP, contracted by -2.24 percent year-on-year in real terms,” the bureau said in the report.

Oil sector contribution to GDP was seen at 8.19 per cent and non-oil sector contribution to GDP was higher at 91.81 per cent.

During the period under review, Nigeria's Aggregate Gross Domestic Product in nominal terms was recorded at N26.558 billion, or a 9.23 per cent growth.

It was a similar case earlier in the second quarter of the year when the GDP contracted by 2.06 per cent in the second quarter of 2016.

According to the NBS report, the decline caused the Naira to get weaker while lower oil prices dragged the oil sector down with output shrinking by 0.36 in the first quarter.

During the quarter, nominal GDP was 2.73 per cent higher at N23.48 million at basic prices.