Market News

By Joseph Chibueze, Abuja

The price of automotive gas oil (AGO), also known as diesel, increased by 25.45 per cent in the last 12 months, worsening the cost of production and contributing substantially to the inflation rate.

Within the period, subsidy removal also pushed up the average price of premium motor spirit (PMS) by 222.92 per cent.
While petrol prices increased to N630.63 in October 2023, from the N195.29 it sold in October 2022, diesel jumped from N801.09 per liter recorded in October 2022 to N1004.98 per liter in October 2023.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its petrol and diesel price watch for last month, reported that on a month-on-month basis, PMS price increased by 0.71 per cent, from the N626.21 it sold in September 2023.

Diesel, on the other hand, recorded an increase of 12.82 per cent, from N890.8 in the preceding month to an average of N1004.98 in October 2023.

On the state profile, Zamfara State had the highest average retail price for PMS at N659.38; Gombe and Borno states were next, with N658.33 and N657.27 respectively.

On the other side, Lagos, Oyo and Delta states had the lowest average retail prices for PMS at N590.95, N592.19 and N599.38 respectively.

For diesel, the variations in the state prices showed that the top three states with the highest average price of the product in October 2023 were all in the North Central zone. These include Plateau State (N1150.00), Nasarawa State (N1138.00) and Benue State (N1091.67).

The least three states with the lowest prices were Rivers State (N824.44), Borno State (N827.27) and Kebbi State (N845).