Economy expanded 2.27% in 2019 compared with 1.9% in 2018

Fourth-quarter GDP growth at 2.55% beat median estimate

Nigeria’s economy expanded the most in four years in 2019 as oil output increased and the central bank took steps to boost credit growth.


Gross domestic product expanded 2.27% last year, the most since 2015, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said on its website on Monday. The economy grew 2.55% in the three months through December from a year earlier, compared with 2.3% in the third quarter. The median estimate of four economists in a Bloomberg survey was for a quarterly number of 2.21%.

West Africa’s largest economy has been struggling to recover meaningfully from a 2016 contraction and last year the central bank started stepping in to boost output. Hamstrung by high inflation the monetary policy committee reduced its key lending rate only once in 2019, but institution announced increases in the loan-to-deposit ratios for banks to force lenders to give out more credit.

Real growth in finance and insurance industry was 20.18% in the fourth quarter, driven by a surge of 22.33% in financial institutions, the most in at least four years. The finance and insurance sector’s contribution to real GDP rose to 3.19% in the three months through December from 2.72% a year earlier.

The central bank said last month private-sector credit growth accelerated to 13.6% in December. While the biggest take-up of credit in the last seven months of 2019 was in manufacturing, the sector grew only 0.77% for the year, dragged down by a slump in oil refining.

Read more:
http://www.sanwomi.com.ng/2020/02/nigerian-economic-growth-at-4-year-high.html

cc: lalasticlala

Nice one