Nigeria's GDP up 1.9 pct in Q4 '17

Nigeria’s economy rose 1.92 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, better than -1.7 percent contraction recorded in the same period of the previous year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
The West African country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.83 percent in 2017 as a whole after shrinking by 1.58 percent in 2016, its first annual contraction in 25 years.
The NBS report said GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 was driven by growth in crop production, crude production, and natural gas, metal ores, construction, transportation and storage, trade, electricity and gas production.
For instance, the report said crop production grew by 4.58 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to 3.19 percent in the third quarter 2017.
Crude production, it noted grew by 8.38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to 25.89 percent in the third quarter of 2017.
Oil production rose to 1.91 million barrels a day (mbpd) in the last quarter of 2017 compared with 1.76 mbpd in the same period of 2016, the statistics office said.
The recession in 2016 was largely caused by low crude oil prices and militant attacks on energy facilities in the Niger Delta. Crude sales make up two-thirds of government revenue.
Africa’s biggest economy returned to growth in the second quarter of 2017 but the recovery has been fragile since it is largely due to higher oil prices. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in December that the economy remains vulnerable.