Economic growth in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer, slowed in the first quarter as the oil industry contracted amid a slump in prices, according to the country’s statistics bureau. Expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) eased on an annual basis to 4 percent compared with 5.9 percent a quarter earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The oil sector shrunk 8.2 percent after a contraction of 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter, even as production was almost unchanged at 2.18 million barrels per day. Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is struggling to cope with a more than 40 percent decline in oil prices over the past year, sales of which provide two-thirds of the state’s revenue. The country has already borrowed more than half the amount it budgeted for the full year as it contends with a “cash-flow crunch”, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said. The oil industry represented 10.5 percent of the country’s first-quarter GDP. – Bloomberg
