Nigeria in 1min: Economic, Business and Financial Headlines

Culled from proshareng.com

Grain Prices To Decline Further Due to Robust Supply – The average national grid power output declined sharply by 12.8% to 3,628MW/h due to gas constraints at Olorunsogo and Afam stations. The recent intermittent power supply has increased the demand for diesel which is used to power generators. FDC Ltd Read More

Akwa Ibom State Reports Highest Unemployment Rate of 37.7% in Q3 2018 – NBS – This report presents the state breakdown of the results of the Labour Force Survey earlier publsihed by the National Bureau of Statistics. Source NBS Read More

Oil Prices Crash As OPEC Prepares To Boost Supply – OIR 260419 – Oil prices fell sharply in early trading on Friday as the market reassessed the impact of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Analysts argue that Iran may succeed in mitigating the impact, maintaining some degree of exports. Source Oilprice Read More

Manufacturing Index Rises Further in April – The Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) in the month of April, stood at 57.7 index points, indicating expansion in the manufacturing sector for the 25th consecutive month. The index grew at a faster rate when compared to the index in the previous month. Source ThisdayRead More

NBS: Inflation drops by 0.06 percent in March 2019

According to National Bureau of Statistics, the consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 11.25 percent (year-on-year) in March 2019. This is 0.06 percent points lower than the rate recorded in February 2019 (11.31) percent.

On month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.79 percent in March 2019, this is 0.06 percent rate higher than the rate recorded in February 2019 (0.73) percent. The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending March 2019 over
the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 11.40 percent, showing 0.16 percent
point from 11.56 percent recorded in February 2019.

The urban inflation rate increased by 11.54 percent (year-on-year) in March 2019 from 11.59 percent
recorded in February 2019, while the rural inflation rate increased by 10.99 percent in March 2019 from
11.05 percent in February 2019.

On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.81 percent in March 2019, up by 0.05 from 0.76
percent recorded in February 2019, while the rural index also rose by 0.77 percent in March 2019, up by
0.06 from the rate recorded in February 2019 (0.71) percent.

The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 11.78 percent in March 2019. This is less than 11.95 percent reported in February 2019, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in March 2019 is 11.08 percent compared to 11.23 percent recorded in February 2019.

What is CPI?

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day to-day living.

NBS: Lagos has highest foreign and domestic debt profile in 2018

Nigerian States and Federal Debt Stock data as at 31st December 2018 reflected that the country foreign and domestic debts stood at $25.27bn and N16.63trn respectively. Further disaggregation of Nigeria foreign debt showed that $11.01bn of the debt was multilateral; $344.63m was bilateral (AFD) and another $2.75bn bilateral from the Exim Bank of China, JICA, India and KFW while $11.17bn was commercial which are basically Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds.

Lagos State has the highest foreign debt profile among the thirty-six states and the FCT accounting for 5.64% while Edo (1.09%), Kaduna (.0.90%) and Cross River (0.75%) followed closely. Similarly, total domestic debt was N16.63 trillion with Lagos state accounting for 3.19% of the total domestic debt stock while Yobe State has the least debt stock in this category with a contribution of 0.17% to the total domestic debt stock.

NBS: JAMB applications drops by 4.01 per cent

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board data reflected that the total number of applications received in 2018 was 1,653,127 as against 1,722,269 applications received in 2017. This represents about 4.01% drop in comparison to the total applications received in 2017.

Similarly, the total number of candidates admitted in 2018 was 549,763 candidates as against 566,719 admitted candidates in 2017. The fall in total admitted candidates in 2018 is about 2.99% compared to the total admitted candidates in 2017.

Further breakdown showed that 902,176 applications of the total applications received in 2018 were from male applicants while 750,951 applications received were from female applicants. In 2017, however, 952,436 of the total applications received for that year were from male applicants while the remaining 769,833 applications received were from female applicants.

In 2018, 302,183 male candidates were admitted as against 315,678 male candidates admitted in 2017 while 247,580 female candidates were admitted in 2018 as against 251,041 female candidates admitted in 2017.