Nigeria loses to S’Africa as Africa’s largest economy - nedus news

Abuja - More than two years after emerging the biggest economy in Africa, Nigeria has finally been dethroned by South Africa after its  economy regained the position in dollar terms with the value of their currencies moving in opposite directions, reports Bloomberg

Using the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of 2015 published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bloomberg reported that the size of South Africa’s economy is $301 billion at the rand’s current exchange rate, while Nigeria’s GDP is $296 billion.

Bloomberg noted that the rand has gained more than 16 per cent against the US dollar since the start of 2016, while in contrast, Nigeria’s naira has lost more than a third of its value. In afternoon trade on Wednesday, the rand firmed by more than a per cent against the dollar, to R13.29.

In July, South Africa stepped past Egypt as the continents’ second largest economy in dollar terms, having dropped behind the North African country earlier in the year.

Recalled that Nigeria on April 6, 2014 became Africa's biggest economy after the government announced a long-overdue rebasing of the country's gross domestic product.

News 24 had reported then that the new calculations took into account changes in production and consumption since the last time the exercise was carried out in 1990, including an added focus on communications and the movie industry.

The data at that time indicated that the economy grew to $453 billion in 2012, instead of $264 billion as measured by the World Bank for that year.

South Africa's economy then was at $384 billion in 2012, according to the World Bank.