Q2, 2023 GDP: LCCI seeks fiscal measures to manage inflation, high interest rate
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the Federal government to adopt more prudent fiscal policy measures to effectively manage inflation and address the issue of high-interest rate and exchange rate volatility.
The Director General of LCCI, Dr. Chinyere Almona stated this in a statement made available to journalists while reacting to the Q2 2023 GDP growth rate published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Almona noted that the significant contraction recorded in transport & storage and the sub-optimal growth in manufacturing and trade largely reflect the deregulation of the downstream oil sector, exchange rate volatility, and weak consumer demand.
“The recovery in agriculture is significant, however, growth remained low and may be attributed to insecurity and policy gaps.
We also note that high growth in solid minerals is insignificant, mainly due to the sector’s relatively small size,” she said./
Almona commended the Federal Government’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security and urged them to prioritise farmers’ areas of assistance, fertilizers, and seeds to mitigate the effects of subsidy removal and create strategic food reserves to be used as price stabilization mechanisms.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that the Nigerian economy grew by 2.51 per cent in the second quarter compared to 2.31 per cent in the first quarter of 2023.
The Q2 growth implies the 11th consecutive quarter of economic growth, though lower than the 3.54 per cent recorded in the same quarter of 2022.
This may be attributed to the challenging economic conditions caused by fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate harmonisation.
Analysis of the GDP result showed that growth was primarily driven by the service sector at 4.42 per cent and contributed 58.42 per cent to aggregate GDP.
The recession in the oil sector persisted with a higher contraction of –13.43 per cent in the quarter compared to –4.21 per cent in the previous quarter.
The significant decline in the oil sector reflects suboptimal daily oil production due to a lack of accountability, oil theft, pipeline vandalism, underinvestment, and rising cost of production.
The non-oil sector grew by 3.58 per cent, a slight expansion of 0.81% points compared to 2.77 per cent in Q1 2023 and lower by 1.19 per cent points compared to Q2 2022.
The top five sectors that contributed to growth are solid minerals (31.9 per cent), finance & insurance (26.8 per cent), utilities (11.0 per cent), information and communication (8.6 per cent), and construction (3.4 per cent).
In contrast, the slowest growing sectors are transport & storage (–50.6 per cent), oil & gas (–13.4 per cent), education (1.4 per cent), agriculture (1.5 per cent) and other services (1.7 per cent). The growth recorded in the manufacturing sector remained low at 2.20 per cent.
