After contracting for two consecutive quarters, the Nigerian economy managed to limp out of recession in the fourth quarter of 2020, beating projections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, both of which predicted Africa’s biggest economy to exit recession in 2021.
Real GDP growth, which measures total monetary value of economic activities adjusted for inflation, grew 0.11 percent in Q4 2020, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Thursday.
The growth in the fourth quarter, compared to the 6 percent and 3 percent contraction in both the second and third quarters of the year, after the global pandemic halted economic activities and sent Africa’s biggest economy to its worst recession since the 80s, brings full year economic growth at -1.92 percent.
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The IMF had predicted Nigeria would close the year with a contraction of 3.25 percent while the World Bank estimated a 4 percent contraction.
The resilience of the quarter was driven by developments in the non-oil sector as the sector grew 1.69 percent in Q4 compared to the oil sector which contracted by 19.76 percent.
While the non-oil sector recorded some improvements in the quarter, both the oil and non-oil sectors, however, closed the year contracting 8.89 percent and 1.25 percent respectively.
