Nigeria's economy slips into recession

ABUJA, Nov 22 (AFP): Oil-rich Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, slipped into recession for the second time in four years, hit by both the coronavirus pandemic and falling oil prices, official figures revealed Saturday.

The third-quarter 2020 real GDP shrank for a second consecutive quarter by 3.62 per cent, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

"Cumulative GDP for the first 9 months of 2020 therefore stood at -2.48 per cent," it added.

The agency blamed falling oil prices and the effects of the coronavirus epidemic.

GDP related to oil shrank by 13.89 per cent, compared to 6.63 in the second quarter, said the third-quarter report.

Non-oil GDP shrank 2.51 per cent over the same period, compared to 6.05 per cent in the second quarter.

Already in the second quarter, Nigeria's economy contracted by six per cent.

Nigeria's economy was last in recession in 2016, its first in more than two decades. While it emerged in 2017, growth since then has been sluggish.