Oil economy slumps as GDP slows to 2.01%

The growth of the oil economy declined to -2.40%, latest gross domestic product (GDP) released by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown.

This is a difference of – 0.78 percentage points from the -1.62% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The nation’s GDP also contracted to 2.01% from 2.38% in Q4 2018.

Oil refining dropped to -49.62% from 33.6% in the preceeding quarter.

“The non-oil sector grew by 2.47% in real terms during the reference quarter. This was 1.72% points higher compared to the rate recorded in the same quarter of 2018 but -0.23% points lower than the fourth quarter of 2018,” the report, which was released on Monday, read.

The agricultural sector was reported to have grown by 3.17% from the 2.46% recorded in Q4 2018.

Finance and Insurance witnessed a decline, contracting to -7.60% from -1.76%.

In this sector, insurance grew by 2.58% in Q1 2019 while financial institutions contracted by -9.21% compared to -2.13% in Q4 2018.

Manufacturing GDP grew by 0.81% in 2019; compared to 2.35% in Q4 2018.

In the first quarter of 2019,the average dialy oil production was 1.96 million barrels per day from the 1.91 million barrels recorded in Q4 2018.

According to the NBS, the election that held in March may have affected the economy’s performance, which it describes as the strongest since 2015.