By Joy Amachi
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in real terms grew by 2.51% in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023 on a year-on-year basis, which is 1.03% percentage points lower than the rate recorded in Q2 2022 (3.54%), but higher by 0.20% percentage points relative to 2.31% recorded in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023. This is contained in a release signed by the Statistician General of the National Bureau of Statistics
This reflects a higher growth rate when compared to the preceding quarter (Q1 2023). The major driver of the economy is the Services sector which recorded a growth of 4.42% and contributed 58.42% to the aggregate GDP.
Similarly, on a quarter-on-quarter, the real GDP growth decreased by 0.17% in Q2 2023, reflecting a low production level than the preceding quarter of Q1 2023.
The economic activity in real terms for Q2 2023 stood at ₦17,719,335.38 million, which is lower than the rates recorded in Q1 2023 ₦17,750,060.97 million but higher than Q2 2022 which stood at ₦17,285,882.91 million. This highlighted the shortfall in production level in the quarter under review when compared with the previous quarters of Q1 2023 but higher than the corresponding quarter of Q2 2022.
In nominal terms (current price), aggregate GDP stood at ₦52,103,927.13
million in Q2 2023, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth rate of 15.77%. This is higher than the value of ₦45,004,520.89 million in Q2 2022 and ₦51,242,151.21 million in the preceding quarter.
The major contributing economic activities in real terms in the quarter under review (i.e., Q2 2023) are Crop Production 20.66%, Trade 16.80%, Telecommunication 16.06%, Crude petroleum 5.34%, and Real Estate 5.29%.
On a broad classification of the economic activities into Agriculture, Industry, and Services sectors based on growth. The Agricultural Sector grew by 1.50% in Q2 2023 in real terms, which is higher than Q2 2022 which recorded 1.20%. The industry grew by -1.94% in Q2 2023, which shows an improvement when compared to the figure recorded in Q2 2022 which was -2.30%. While the Services sector grew by 4.42% but less than 6.70% recorded in Q2 2022.
Analyses of the contributions of the broad economic sectors in the period under review. Agriculture contributed 23.01%, Industry 18.56%, and Services 58.42%. Agriculture and industry contributions were less than their contributions in Q2 2022 by 0.23% and 0.84% percentage points, while the Services sector had the highest contribution to the GDP in Q2 2023, surpassing the Service sector’s contribution in the corresponding quarter of 2022 by 1.07% percentage points.
Further disaggregation of the economic activities into oil and non-oil sectors. The oil GDP grew by -13.43% in Q2 2023, which shows a decline when compared to -11.77% in Q2 2022 and the previous quarter of Q1 2023 which recorded -4.21%. Similarly, the oil sector accounted for 5.34% during the quarter under review.
The second quarter of 2023 recorded an average daily oil production of 1.22 million barrels per day (mbpd), lower than the daily average production of 1.43 mbpd and 1.51 mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2022 and the Q12023 by 0.22 mbpd and 0.29 mbpd, respectively.
The non-oil sector contributes 94.66% to the GDP in Q2 of 2023 in real terms. This shows an increase on a year-on-year basis when compared to the same period in Q2 2022 which stood at 93.67%. This is also higher than Q1 2023 which recorded 93.79%.
The economic performance of the non-oil sector in Q2 2023 is attributed to the growth recorded in some economic activities, like crop Production in the Agriculture sector, Trade, Telecommunication, Real Estate in the Services Sector, and Crude petroleum in the Mining and quarrying sector.
