The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that while the Composite Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) and two of its sectors – Services and Agriculture recorded expansion in August, signalling improvement in economic activity, the Industry Sector recorded a decline.
CBN made this disclosure in its newly published Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) report for August released on Thursday.
According to the apex bank, activities in the industrial sector declined at 49.1 index points in August 2025 following a decline in 10 of its subsectors among 17 surveyed.
“The Industry Sector index, at 49.1 points, indicated contraction in industrial activities in August 2025. Output, New Orders and employment indicated decline in August 2025 at 49.6, 47.2 and 48.9 index points, respectively. Similarly, Stock of Raw Materials experienced contraction at 48.9 index points in the review month”
“However, in August 2025, the Suppliers’ Delivery Time index recorded fast delivery time at 52.4 index points.
“Among the 17 sub-sectors surveyed in the Industry sector, 7 recorded expansions, while the remaining 10 sub-sectors indicated contraction.
“The sub-sector with the highest expansion was Transportation Equipment, while Paper Products recorded the highest level of contraction.” The reports said.
However, the CBN said the service and Agriculture sectors recorded expansion at 51.9 and 53.9 index points respectively.
This resulted in an overall expansion in economic activities at 51.7 index points during the review period.
“The composite PMI for August 2025 stood at 51.7 points, indicating an expansion in economic activities for the ninth consecutive month.
“Out of the 36 subsectors covered in the survey, 22 experienced expansion in economic activity.
“The Service Sector index, at 51.9 points in August 2025, indicated expansion for the seventh consecutive month, with ten (10) subsectors recording growth in economic activities out of the fourteen (14) subsectors covered.
“At 53.9 index points, the Agriculture Sector recorded expansion for the thirteenth consecutive month in August 2025.
“All five (5) subsectors recorded growth in agricultural activities.
Industry Sector recorded the highest input and output prices gap in the month of August 2025 at 7.4 points, while services recorded the lowest gap at 3.7 points.
“Overall, the August 2025 PMI data indicated a continued expansion in economic activities across Nigeria.
“The expansion for services and Agriculture sectors underpins a favourable outlook in the third quarter of the year (Q3’25).”
