Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate increased to 2.28 per cent (year-on-year), in real terms, in the third quarter of the year (Q3 2019), compared to 2.12 per cent in the preceding quarter, representing an increase of 0.17 per cent.

According to the GDP Q3 2019 report released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the growth rate in Q3 represented the second highest quarterly rate recorded since 2016.

Also yesterday, the Debt Management Office revealed that out of Nigeria’s total debt profile of N25.7tn as of June 2019, external borrowing accounted for about 32 per cent while 68 per cent is from domestic borrowing.

The report by the NBS showed that aggregate GDP for Q3 2019 stood at N37.80 trillion in nominal terms, which was higher than the N33.36 trillion in Q3 2018, representing a year-on-year nominal growth rate of 13.30 per cent.

The NBS stated that the growth rate was however lower relative to rates recorded in Q3 2018 by 0.28 per cent and the rates recorded in the preceding quarter by 0.71 per cent.

The economy continued to be driven by the non-oil sector, accounting for 90.23 per cent of GDP while the oil sector contributed 9.77 per cent in the quarter under review.

Daily oil production, however, increased to 2.04 million barrels per day (mbpd) in Q3 compared to 1.94 mbpd, representing its highest in more than three years.

The real growth of the oil sector was 6.49 per cent (year-on-year) in Q3, indicating an increase of 9.40 per cent relative to rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2018.

The sector contributed 9.77 per cent to total real GDP compared to 8.98 per cent in the preceding quarter.

Conversely, the non-oil sector grew by 1.85 per cent in real terms during the reference quarter, which is 0.20 per cent higher than estimates for the previous quarter.

In real terms, the sector contributed 90.23 per cent to growth, slightly lower than the 91.02 per cent in the previous quarter.

However, agriculture, which is the mainstay of the economy, contributed 29.25 per cent real GDP during the quarter, compared to 22.78 per cent in the preceding quarter.

According to the NBS, industries further contributed 22.17 per cent to growth while the services sector accounted for 48.59 per cent of the GDP.