18 January 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – The recent eight-day strike cost Nigeria’s economy an estimated N207.4 billion ($1.2 billion), according to the national bureau of statistics
The Bureau said on Wednesday that the biggest losses were in the retail and the oil and gas sectors, Reuters reports.
The Nigerian consumer inflation edged down slightly year-on-year in December to 10.3 percent, from 10.5 percent the month before, it also said. Food inflation rose 11 percent in December, up from 9.6 percent in November, the bureau’s data showed.
Nigerian trade unions called off strikes and protests over removal of fuel subsidies on Monday, ending a major confrontation.
But a week of total shutdown was massively damaging to Nigeria’s economy, especially in its two biggest cities of Lagos and Kano, where protests were most widespread.
“The sector, which accounts for about 18 percent of GDP, was worst hit by the crisis was the Wholesale and Retail Sector, which recorded a loss of approximately 86,981.84 million naira,” the bureau report said.
“This sector accounted for 42 percent of the overall total loss in output during the period. This was followed by the Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas Sector, the largest source of government revenue accounting for N28,710.87 million, and 14 percent of economic losses,” it said.
This was despite the fact that oil workers did not carry out a threat to shut down production. Most oil majors say their production was not affected during the strike at all.
“Our production wasn’t touched at all. We made no losses,” said an official at one oil major.
