PMS Imports Rise 21.7% In Q4’18

The two-quarter consecutive declines in the volume of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, importation has been reversed with a 21.7 percent rise in the fourth quarter of 2018 (Q4’18) to 5.32 billion litres up from 4.37 billion recorded in Q3’18.

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, yesterday, disclosed this in its report entitled: “Petroleum Products Imports and Consumption (Truck Out) Statistics (Q4 2018)”

The report indicated that the country imported 5.32 billion litres of PMS and 1.30 billion litres of automotive gas oil (AGO), or diesel in Q4’18.

It also stated that, 114.19 million litres of dual purpose kerosene (DPK), 267.80 million litres of aviation turbine kerosene (ATK), 50.73 million litres of base oil, 42.38 million litres of bitumen, 10.63 million litres of low pour fuel oil (LPFO) and 331.78 million litres of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) were imported into the country in Q4’18.

Recall that the volume had declined to 4.79 billion litres in Q2’18 from 5.67 billion litres in Q1’18. It also declined further to 4.37 billion litres in Q3’18.

Meanwhile the report further showed State-wide distribution of truck-out volume for Q4’18 as 5.17 billion liters of PMS, 1.16 billion litres of automotive gas oil (AGO), 81.12 million litres of household kerosene (HHK), 256.73 million litres of aviation turbine kerosene (ATK) and 137.53 million of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) were distributed nationwide during the period.

Petroleum products imports have been driven by poor state of Nigeria’s refineries. Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had couple of months ago revealed that none of Nigeria’s four refineries worked up to 50 per cent of their capacity at any time during 2018.economy during the period.

The CBN, yesterday, disclosed this in its Business Expectation Survey (BES) report for March 2019.

According to the survey report, businesses’ overall confidence in the macro economy grew by 6.1 points to 28.2 index points in March from 22.1 index points in February.

The report also showed that firms expected  confidence in the macro-economy to grow by 6.3 points to 64.8 index points in April from the projected growth of 58.5 index points in March.

The report stated: “The respondents’ average expected inflation rate in the next six months and twelve months stood at 11.2 and 11.1 percent, respectively.

“Respondent firms expect borrowing rates to rise in current, next and the next twelve months as the confidence indices stood at 15.5, 0.4 and 1.8 points, respectively.”

On firms’ overall confidence index, the report read: “At 28.2 index points, respondents expressed optimism on the overall confidence index (CI) on the macro economy in the month of March 2019. The businesses outlook for April 2019 showed greater confidence on the macro economy with 64.8 index points.

“The optimism on the macro economy in the current month was driven by the opinion of respondents from services (16.8 points), industrial (8.6 points), wholesale/retail trade (2.3 points) and construction sectors (0.5 points). Whereas the major drivers of the optimism for next month were services (37.0 points), industrial (19.4 points), wholesale/retail trade (6.2 points) and construction sectors (2.2 points)

“The positive outlook by type of business in March 2019 were driven by businesses that are neither import-nor export-oriented (20.3 points), both import-and export-oriented (4.1 points), import-oriented (3.5 points), and those that are export-related (0.2 points)

“All the four sectors expressed optimism on own operations in the review month. However, respondents from the services sector expressed the greatest optimism on own operation with an index of 7.1 points, followed by the industrial sector with 3.3 points, the wholesale and retail trade with 2.0 points and the construction sector with 0.5 points respectively