The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said the economic growth of 0.11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020 was a pleasant surprise.
Reacting to the announcement of the growth recently indicating that Nigeria was out of recession, the Managing Director of LCCI, Dr Muda Yusuf said the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth declined by 1.92 per cent which was at its lowest level since 1994.
The surprise he said was in the fact that real GDP growth rose by 0.11% in Q4-2020, compared to 3.62% contraction in the preceding quarter.
“From the analysis of the just-released GDP report, the following sectors were the top performing in the fourth quarter 2020.
“Quarrying and other minerals (48.42%); telecommunications & information services (17.64%), cement (6.59%), broadcasting (4.42%) and crop production (3.68%).
“The worst sectoral contractions were in Petroleum Refining (-56.5%), air transport (-51.69%), coal mining (-23.16%), crude petroleum & natural gas (-19.76%) and accommodation & food services (-15.03%),” he noted.
He further said due to a boom in economic activities usually at the year end, GDP growth was expected. “Going by historical trends, real GDP growth is usually robust in Q4-2020 due to festive-induced rise in production and business activities.”
This, coupled with the continued relaxation of global and domestic lockdown policies, he said, provided impetus to business activities and possibly supported the quick recovery of the non-oil sector, as growth improved further to 1.69% in Q4-2020, compared to 2.51% contraction reported in the preceding quarter.
