The Federal Government, on Tuesday hailed the slow but steady pace of recovery of Nigeria’s economic from recession as shown by the 2017 Q1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) earlier in the day.
Reacting to the NBS data released earlier in the day, the Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu, Presidential Adviser on Economic Matters, said the figures inspire hope that within the remain three quarters of this year, Nigeria’s economy can still return to positive growth as envisaged in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Such positive outlook, according to Dr. Dipeolu, is reinforced by “other indicators such as improved oil prices and increasing production, rising foreign exchange reserves, increased capital spending by the Federal Government as well as improved perceptions reflected in various purchasing and sales managers indices.”
The growth envisaged, according to a statement by Laolu Akande, spokesman to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, said is “barring major economic shocks,” quoting Dipeolu.
The Presidential adviser particularly noted the impressive growth in the contribution of the agriculture GDP, just as the positive turnaround in in manufacturing and non-oil sectors.
He noted that the 2017 Q1 performance is the strongest “in five quarters and shows a significant turnaround from the low of -2.34% reached in the third quarter of 2016 (Q3 2016).”
Agricultural growth, he continued, “remained in positive territory albeit growing at a slower rate of about 3.4%, no doubt due to seasonal factors.
“Growth in manufacturing on the other hand returned to positive territory after five quarters of negative growth. It grew by 1.36% in Q1 2017 after falling to a nadir of -7.0% in Q1 2016.
“The solid mineral sector continued to justify the priority given to it by the Federal Government with high double digit growth for metal ores and quarrying at 40.79% and 52.54% respectively.”
Dipeolu also noted the strong -11.64% growth in the oil sector, which remained better than the previous quarter, at a time “the non-oil sector which accounts for about 90% of GDP returned to positive growth although at a marginal level of 0.72% in Q1 2017. This is the first positive growth in the non-oil sector since the last quarter of 2015.”
This is a positive development, he believes, when considered also against the backdrop of the fact that headline inflation fell for the third month in a row to 17.24%, with core inflation also declining quite rapidly.
Just as members of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) noted in the communiqué at the end of its two-day meeting also on Tuesday, Dr. Dipeolu said “food inflation remains of concern as it continues to trend upwards.
“This is mainly due to rising transport costs and other structural impediments to the movement of foods in the domestic market.”
Meanwhile, the Presidential Adviser is happy that Nigeria’s trade balance remained positive, reflecting import contraction and relatively higher export revenues which grew year-on-year by up to 80.5%.
“The overall picture that the figures show is that the economy is emerging slowly out of recession,” he stressed.