Nigeria Economy Officially Slides Into Worst Recession Since 1987

The Nigeria economy has now officially hit its worst recession in over three decades. 

This makes it the second consecutive quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline since the recession of 2016.

According to GDP numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday, November 21, the nation recorded a contraction of 3.62% in the third quarter of 2020.

The cumulative GDP for the first nine months of 2020 stood at -2.48%. 

Insights gathered indicates that the last time the country recorded such cumulative GDP decline was in 1987, when GDP declined by 10.8%. 

Also according to World Bank and NBS figures monitored by TheCable, this is the second recession under President Muhammadu Buhari's democratic reign and his fourth as head of state. 

Meanwhile, the World Bank had warned earlier this year that the Nigeria economy if care not taken is expected to slide into severe economic recession. 

This is due to the collapse of oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. 

Report released by the World Bank in June estimated that the Nigeria's economy would likely contract by 3.2% in 2020.