Non-Oil Sector Growth Drops To -0.36%

Amidst efforts by the Federal Government to diversify the economy from oil, the prospects of earning revenue from the non-oil sector are fast fading, owing to the dismal performance of the sector.

Data from Bloomberg showed that all activities in the non-oil sector recorded varying degrees of declining growth relative to real Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter of 2016.

Specifically, the data indicated that the sector dropped from 2.11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 to -0.36 per cent in the first quarter of 2016.

A further breakdown of the figure showed that in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sub sector, crop production dropped from 3.3 per cent in the Q4, 2015 to three per cent in the Q1 2016; livestock was 5.6 per cent in the Q4 2015, it dropped to 3.9 per cent in the Q1 2016. Forestry fell from four per cent in the Q4 2015 to 2.3 per cent in the Q1 2016. Fishing was 5.4 per cent in the Q4 2015, it dropped to 3.3 per cent in the Q1 2016.

The mining and quarrying, crude petroleum and natural gas sector had a negative decline of -8.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015; it improved slightly to -1.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2016.

In the sector, coal mining reduced from 7.7 per cent in the Q4 2015 to 3.3 per cent in the Q1 2016. Metal ores increased from 6.9 per cent to 57 per cent while quarrying and other minerals, which stood at 5.6 per cent in the Q4 2015, recorded a negative (-88.9 per cent) in the Q1 2016.

In the manufacturing sector, oil refining maintained a negative of -22.6 per cent in the Q1 2016, the same figure that was recorded for the Q4 2015.

Cement, which witnessed huge growth last year, dropped sharply from a high of 21.3 per cent in the Q4 2015 to a negative of -4.4 per cent in the Q1 2016.

Food, Beverage and Tobacco sector increased in negative growth from -5.6 per cent in the Q4 2015 to -11.1 in the Q1 2016. Textile and apparel, which recorded 2.8 per cent growth in the Q4 2015, declined to -3 per cent.

Chemical and pharmaceutical products declined from 17.2 per cent in the Q4 2015 to 5.9 per cent in the Q1 2016; non-metallic mineral products dipped from 12.7 per cent in the Q4 2015 to 5.5 per cent in the Q1 2016; plastic and rubber products also plummeted from 15.7 per cent in Q4 2015 to 4.8 per cent in Q1 2016.

Wholesale and retail trade also witnessed a decline from 4.7 per cent in the Q4 2015 to two per cent in the Q1 2016.

In general, real GDP growth of the manufacturing sector slowed by 8.39 per cent in the Q1 2016 according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The report added that nominal GDP growth of manufacturing in the Q1 2016 slowed by 2.98 per cent (year-on-year), representing 4.23 per cent points lower from growth recorded in the Q1 2015 and 9.91 per cent points lower from growth in the Q4 2015 as a result of slower growth in 10 of 13 activities in the sector.

Source:- Investorsking