ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's economy grew faster in the fourth quarter of last year than the previous quarter but oil output from Africa's biggest producer fell due to theft and flooding, statistics showed on Thursday.
Africa's second largest economy grew 6.99 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter 2012, up from 6.48 percent in the third quarter, driven by growth in construction, leisure and power sectors, the national bureau of statistics (NBS) said.
GDP grew 6.58 percent for the full year 2012, down from 7.43 percent in 2011, due to a slowdown in developed economies that buy Nigerian oil and to the impact of an Islamist insurgency in the north of the country.
Oil output fell to an average of 2.14 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter 2012, from 2.52 million bpd in the third quarter but strong global prices helped to offset the impact of lower production on the economy.
Production was impacted by outages caused by theft and flooding, the NBS report said. Nigeria is among the world's top 10 crude exporters and holds the ninth biggest gas reserves.
Oil accounts for 80 percent of government revenues and 95 percent of foreign exchange earnings but agriculture is the largest contributor to GDP with a weighting of 40 percent.
Nigeria is growing as an investment destination due to its huge potential consumer population of 160 million and improved fiscal and monetary stability.
Standard and Poor's and Fitch both upgraded Nigeria's credit rating last year and investment in fixed income markets has soared since JP Morgan added the country to its bond index in October. Barclays will add Nigeria to its index next month.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-growth-quickens-q4-2012-oil-output-falls-151608735--business.html
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