Nigeria is now officially out of recession after NBS report shows economy grew by 0.55% in second quarter

NIGERIA is now officially out of recession according to statistics just published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that showed that the economy grew by 0.55% during the second quarter of the year.

Over the last 20 years, Nigeria has enjoyed an average annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) of about 6% but last year, the country fell into recession. This problem lingered on until the beginning of this year when GDP shrank by 0.52% year-on-year in real terms over the first quarter of 2017, representing the fifth consecutive quarter of contraction since early 2016.

According to the NBS's latest report, the nation’s economy has snapped out of its first recession in 25 years as GDP has returned to positive growth. It is now expected that the economy will see further growth during the rest of the year.

“This growth is 2.04% higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016, which was 1.49% and higher by 1.46 percentage points from rate recorded in the preceding quarter. Quarter-on-quarter, real GDP growth was 3.23%," the report added.

Nigeria' economy had shrunk by 1.5% in 2016, the first full-year contraction in 25 years. After several quarters of slowdown in growth on the back of the steep fall in crude oil prices, the economy contracted by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2016, 2.1% in the second quarter, 2.2%  in the third and 1.3% in the fourth.