The real estate services sector contracted by 17.18 per cent in the second quarter of the year, statistics available from the National Bureau of Statistics have shown.
The NBS disclosed this in its second quarter report on the country’s Gross Domestic Product report.
Part of the report said, “In nominal terms, real estate services in the second quarter of 2020 declined by 17.18 per cent per cent, or 19.27 per cent points lower than the growth rate reported for the same period in 2019 and lower by 18.31 per cent points compared to the preceding quarter.”
Quarter-on-quarter, the sector growth rate was lower by 1.24 per cent.
The contribution to nominal GDP in Q2 2020 stood at 5.23 per cent as against 6.35 per cent recorded in Q2 2019 but same as the value in Q1 2020.
Real GDP growth recorded in the sector in the second quarter of 2020 fell by 21.99 per cent, lower than the growth recorded in Q2 2019 by 18.15 per cent points, and 17.24 per cent points relative to Q1 2020.
Quarter-on-quarter, the sector declined by 2.71 per cent in the second quarter of 2020.
It contributed 5.30 per cent to real GDP in Q2 2020, lower than the 6.43 per cent it recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
In the NBS report, Nigeria’s GDP decreased by 6.10 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2020, ending the third year trend of low but positive real growth rates recorded since the 2016/17 recession.
The decline was largely attributable to significantly lower levels of both domestic and international economic activity during the quarter, which resulted from nationwide shutdown aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The domestic efforts ranged from initial restrictions of human and vehicular movement implemented in only a few states to a nationwide curfew, bans on domestic and international travel, closure of schools and markets among others, affecting both local and international trades.
Knocks for FG over petrol price, electricity tariff hike
The Federal Government on Sunday came under more criticism for the increase in electricity tariff and petrol pump price last week.
The Centre for Democracy and Development and the Civil Liberties Organisation condemned the government’s actions, saying many Nigerians would be hard hit.
The CDD, a civil rights movement, expressed its support for citizens’ resistance against all anti-people policies, using all constitutional options, including peaceful mass protests and litigation.
The organisation, in a statement by its Director, Idayat Hassan, on Sunday, regretted that at a time when governments around the world were enacting policies and putting in place measures to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on citizens, “the Nigerian government has chosen to do the direct opposite.”
According to Hassan, the CDD is convinced that the government should have found other creative, sustainable and logical pathways to address the issues which necessitated the price hikes.
The group said, “The resort to the policy of hiking the prices of essential commodities and services points to the absence of the political will to fulfil the promises made to the Nigerian people while this President was on the campaign trail in 2015 and 2019.
“In all of these cases, the Federal Government has failed to act to ease the pains of long-suffering citizens. Its decision to inflict further hardships on the people by hiking electricity tariffs should get an appropriate response from millions of Nigerians whose well-being has been further imperilled.”
The Chairman, CLO, Rivers State, Sotonye George, said on Sunday in Port Harcourt that poor Nigerians would be the worst hit by the effects of electricity tariff and fuel price hikes.
