Nigeria’s economic growth accelerated in the third quarter as oil output increased, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
Oil production increased to 2.03 million barrels a day in the third quarter from a revised 1.87 barrels a day, the statistics office said. The crude sector contributed 10.04 percent to real GDP, according to the NBS.
The gross domestic product expanded 1.4 percent in the three months through September from a year earlier, compared with a revised 0.72 percent in the second quarter. The median of 13 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for 1.5 percent growth. The faster economic growth may allow the central bank to continue its tight monetary policy to fight inflation that has been above the upper end of the 6 percent to 9 percent target range for more than two years.
The monetary policy committee is scheduled to announce its final rate decision for the year on Tuesday. The MPC has kept the benchmark rate at a record high of 14 percent since July 2016.
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