Nigeria’s overall economic output, known as Gross Domestic Product, grew by 2.31 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023.
However, this growth rate is lower than the 3.11% recorded in the first quarter of 2022 and the 3.52 per cent growth rate in the last quarter of 2022.
The decline in growth according to the National Bureau of Statistics was primarily caused by the negative impacts of a shortage of cash following the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The NBS report states, “The reduction in growth is attributed to the adverse effects of the cash crunch experienced during the quarter.”
Touching on the performance of different sectors of the economy, the report added, “The performance of the GDP in the first quarter of 2023 was driven mainly by the Services sector, which recorded a growth of 4.35% and contributed 57.29% to the aggregate GDP. The agriculture sector grew by -0.90%, lower than the growth of 3.16% recorded in the first quarter of 2022.”
It also stated that while the industry sector’s growth improved to 0.31% from a negative growth rate of -6.81% in the first quarter of 2022, both the agriculture and industry sectors made smaller contributions to the overall GDP during the reviewed quarter when compared to the first quarter of 2022.
“In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N51,242,151.21 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2022 which recorded aggregate GDP of N45,317,823.33 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 13.07%,” NBS said.
