Business a.m
Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased 2.54 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the third quarter of 2023,slightly above the 2.25 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2022 and the 2.51 per cent in the second quarter of 2023.
The growth of Nigeria’s economy in the third quarter of 2023 was driven primarily by the services sector, which grew by 3.99 per cent and contributed 52.70 per cent to the overall GDP. The services sector includes trade, transportation, finance, information and communication, as well as real estate, among other services.
This is according to the latest GDP report for the third quarter of the year published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
During the quarter under review, total GDP stood at N60.6 trillion in nominal terms. This is higher than the N52.2 trillion recorded in the third quarter of 2022, indicating a nominal growth of 16.08 per cent.
In real terms, the oil sector grew by -0.85 per cent in the third quarter of 2023, compared to a growth rate of -22.67 per cent in the third quarter of 2022. This represents an increase of 21.83 percentage points. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector grew by 12.47 per cent in the third quarter of 2023, following a decline of 13.43 per cent in the second quarter of 2023.
According to the NBS report, the oil sector’s contribution to the total real GDP in the third quarter of 2023 was 5.48 per cent, down from 5.66 per cent in the corresponding period of 2022, but up from 5.34 per cent in the second quarter of 2023. This means that while the oil sector’s contribution to the total real GDP declined when compared to the third quarter of 2022, it increased when compared to the second quarter of 2023.
In real terms, the non-oil sector grew by 2.75 per cent in the third quarter of 2023, down from 4.27 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2022 and 3.59 per cent in the second quarter of 2023. The non-oil sector contributed 94.52 per cent to real GDP in the period under review, higher than the 94.34 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2022, but lower than the 94.66 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2023. The sector was mainly driven by information and communication (telecommunication), financial and insurance (financial institutions), agriculture (crop production), trade, construction, and real estate.
