Oil sector decline leads Nigeria’s First-Quarter GDP Slow down

Nigeria’s economic growth slowed in the first quarter of 2019  lead by the oil sector, which remains the country’s biggest foreign-exchange earner, contracting.

Figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday show that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 2.01% in the three months through March from a year earlier.
This means a contraction from the 2.4% expansion in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The slowdown in growth is likely to increase pressure on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to cut interest rates further when its announces it policy decision on Tuesday. The Monetary Policy Committee unexpectedly reduced the key rate in March to help boost expansion.

Economic growth slowed after the oil sector contracted 2.4 percent from a year earlier. The crude industry has declined every quarter since the three months through June 2018.

Nigeria’s economy is recovering from the 2014 crash in crude prices and the International Monetary Fund forecasts that growth will accelerate to 2.1% this year from 1.9% in 2018. That would still leave the country in troubled waters as analysts say the country needs to grow at at least times two its population growth rate which stands at over 3 percent.