COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS GROWTH PERFORMANCE BETWEEN INDIA AND NIGERIA

Abstract

India and Nigeria were colonized by the British empire, got their independence within a given time range, and are among the largest growing economies among developing nations; they were ranked 1st and 3rd most populous among the common wealth countries respectively and both the countries houses significant population of malnourished, poor and food insecure people. The paper comparatively assessed the macroeconomic growth performance between the two countries using time series data that spanned from 1990-2020. Compound growth rate model was fitted to the data to confirm the trend of acceleration, deceleration or stagnation during the period. The results of the study revealed that mean values of GDP and GNI in US dollars at constant prices for India were higher than that of Nigeria by almost 7 times, while Nigeria`s per capita GDP was higher than that of India under the reference period. With respect to the GDP and per capita GDP growth rates, India recorded lower growth but more stable than Nigeria. Further, both the countries recorded highest GDP contributions from Service sector (46 per cent in India and 35 per cent in Nigeria). But the growth rate shows stability in Indian Service sector in contrast to the highest instability in agricultural sector. In Nigeria, on the other hand, agricultural sector got the highest growth contribution to GDP growth-though stagnant and instable, while service sector’s growth contribution to GDP growth was the lowest among other variables. It is recommended that increase budget share to agriculture through proper funding of research, credit support and extension service would help to repositioned agriculture back to its higher (of about 50 per cent) GDP contribution and compete vigorously with other economic sectors in income generation, employment opportunities and poverty reduction in both India and Nigeria.