The National Bureau of Statistics in its first quarter 2019 Gross Domestic product (GDP) report stated that in real terms, the country’s GDP grew by 2.01 per cent year-on-year.
However, relative to the preceding quarter (fourth quarter of 2018), real GDP growth rate declined by -0.38 percentage points.
Compared to the first quarter of 2018, which recorded real GDP growth rate of 1.89%, the Q1 2019 growth rate represented an increase of 0.12% points.
It is worth noting that general elections were held across the country during the first quarter of 2019 and this may have reflected in the strongest first quarter performance observed since 2015.
Aggregate GDP stood at N31,794,085.85 million in nominal terms. This aggregate was higher than in the first quarter of 2018 which recorded N28,438,604.23 million, representing a year on year nominal growth rate of 11.80 per cent.
The aggregate was, however, lower than in the preceding quarter of N35,230,607.63 million, by -9.75 per cent. The nominal GDP growth rate in Q1 2019 was higher than the rate recorded in Q1 2018 by 2.54 percentage points.