By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo and Mohd Edrees
ABUJA (Reuters) -Nigeria’s economy expanded 4.23% year-on-year in the second quarter, its quickest pace in four years, driven by a sharp rebound in oil output and steady gains in services, data showed on Monday.
Gross domestic product was at 4.23% in the second quarter, compared with 3.48% a year ago and 3.13% in he first quarter, following a rebasing exercise in July that moved the base year to 2019 from 2010. Monday’s release is the second to reflect a rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP aimed at capturing structural changes to the economy of Africa’s most populous country.
“To a large extent, this is due to the rebasing of the GDP and the reconstitution of the inflation basket which has helped to reflect current economic realities and moderate inflation,” said Bismarck Rewane, chief executive of the Financial Derivatives Co. and a government economics adviser.
Oil output rose to 1.68 million barrels per day from 1.62 million bpd in the first quarter and 1.41 million bpd a year earlier, lifting the oil sector to 20.46% growth, while the non-oil economy expanded 3.64%.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector grew 6.01%. While the non-oil economy still made up 95.95% of output, growth remains sensitive to crude flows.
President Bola Tinubu last month announced a 7% annual economic growth target by 2027.
Nigeria’s central bank expects the economy to expand by 4.17% this year, driven by ongoing reforms and stabilising inflation.
(Reporting by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja and Mohd Edrees in Bengaluru;Editing by Alexander Winning)
