By Obinna Uballa
Industrial activity in Nigeria contracted in August 2025, recording 49.1 index points in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report made available to the press on Thursday.
The CBN said the downturn followed contractions in 10 out of 17 subsectors surveyed. The decline was reflected across key indicators, with output, new orders, and employment falling to 49.6, 47.2, and 48.9 points respectively. Stock of raw materials also contracted at 48.9 points.
However, the report noted that suppliers’ delivery time improved, standing at 52.4 index points. Transportation equipment posted the strongest expansion among subsectors, while paper products recorded the steepest contraction.
Despite the weakness in the industry, the broader economy maintained positive momentum. The composite PMI stood at 51.7 points, marking the ninth consecutive month of expansion. Both services and agriculture supported this growth, with the service sector posting 51.9 points and agriculture rising to 53.9 points.
The CBN highlighted that 22 of the 36 subsectors covered in the survey expanded during the month. The agriculture sector maintained consistent strength, growing for the 13th straight month, while services expanded for the seventh month in a row.
The report also showed input-output price disparities, with the industry sector recording the widest gap at 7.4 points compared with 3.7 points in services.
According to the CBN, “the expansion for services and agriculture sectors underpins a favourable outlook in the third quarter of the year (Q3’25).”
