May 22, 2025/CSL Research
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report for April 2025, covering the Industry, Services, and Agriculture sectors. The composite PMI stood at 52.2 points, indicating continued positive momentum in the Nigerian economy. This marks the fifth consecutive month of expansion, following PMI readings of 51.3 in December 2024, 50.2 in January 2025, 51.4 in February, and 52.3 in March. A PMI reading above 50.0 points typically signals an increase in business activity, while a reading below that threshold suggests contraction.
Across sectors, performance remained strong. The Agriculture sector maintained its growth trajectory for the ninth consecutive month, posting a PMI of 53.8 points. The Industry sector recorded a PMI of 51.8 points—its fifth straight month of expansion. Similarly, the Services sector also grew, with a PMI of 51.8 points, marking its third consecutive month of improvement.
In April 2025, composite output and new orders recorded the strongest growth among the key PMI indicators, both rising to 53.2 points—from 52.8 and 52.2 points respectively in the previous month. This reflects stronger production activity and increased demand during the period under review. However, suppliers’ delivery times slowed, with the index declining to 51.0 points from 53.1 in March, indicating slightly delayed deliveries.
The expansion in raw material inventories remained relatively flat, coming in at 51.7 points compared to 51.8 in the previous month. This suggests a continued slowdown in inventory stockpiling by manufacturers, following earlier buildup trends. Meanwhile, the employment index dropped to 50.7 points from 51.7 in March, pointing to emerging pressures in the labour market.
In April, output levels and new orders increased across all sectors except Agriculture. This trend appears to be driven by easing inflationary pressures, which supported improved domestic demand conditions, as reflected in the April 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.
Notably, within the input and output price indices, the Agriculture sector recorded the highest input price at 69.2 points and the lowest output price at 59.6 points. Across all sectors—composite, industry, services, and agriculture—input price indices remained higher than output price indices, indicating continued pressure on business profit margins. Looking ahead, overall production and composite output levels are expected to remain in expansion territory, supported by anticipated further moderation in inflation, which should help ease input costs. The ongoing cost absorption by firms is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term and may signal a potential uptick in consumer price inflation in the future.
Click here to download full report: CSL Nigeria Daily – 22 May 2025 – PMI.pdf
