Omodele Adigun and Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday, said Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by –6.10 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2020. According to a statement obtained from its website, in Abuja, NBS explained that the decline was largely attributable to significantly lower levels of both domestic and international economic activities during the quarter resulting from the nationwide shutdowns aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The domestic efforts ranged from initial restrictions of human and vehicular movements implemented in only a few states to a nationwide curfew, bans on domestic and international travels, closure of schools and markets among others, which affected both local and international trade. NBS said that efforts, led by the federal and state governments, evolved over the course of the quarter and persisted throughout. It noted that when compared with Q2 2019, which recorded a growth of 2.12 per cent, the Q2 2020 growth rate indicates a drop of –8.22 per centage points, and a fall of –7.97 per centage points when compared to the first quarter of 2020 (1.87 per cent).
Statistician General, Dr. Yemi Kale, said that the Quarterly National Accounts (QNA) adopted the same concepts, definitions and structure as Annual National Accounts (ANA).
Meanwhile, a member of the Economic Advisory Council (ECA), Mr Bismarck Rewane, has warned that the decline is a wake-up call to start “doing some things differently” in the country. Rewane, who stated this on Monday during an interview on Channels Television, said the decline was “surprising and concerning” but not “alarming at this point in time.”
“The truth is that the economy had its pre-existing conditions in Q1 (first quater) and the lag between the slow down and the contraction was underestimated by all analysts,” he said. He pointed out that the Federal Government’s stimulus plan for the economy was inadequate to cover for the shortfall recorded by the NBS.
“We have a N2.5trillion equipment to fight a N12trillion contraction,” he said. “So the limitations and inadequacies and inappropriateness of the tools, compared to the problem we have is stacked.
“So we are saying that the move from a slowdown into a contraction was more than we expected. The tools that we have at our disposal are inadequate. The stimulus that is required to take us out of this equation is going to be much more than we expected. And we are going to have to take some measures.”