The Nigerian private sector remained in growth territory as the first half of 2025 drew to a close, with business confidence improving in June, the Stanbic IBTC Bank Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) report stated.

The report, however, noted that the rate of expansion in output, new orders and purchasing eased from the May level.

Although rates of inflation remained relatively sharp, there were signs of cost pressures softening and companies raising their output prices at the slowest pace in just over two years.

Headline PMI remained above the 50 no-change mark for the seventh consecutive month in June at 51.6. The reading was down from 52.7 in May, the lowest in the current growth sequence.

The PMI signalled a modest improvement in business conditions in the private sector.

The rate of output growth eased particularly sharply, slowing for the second month running to a seven-month low.

Data indicated that the slowdown in the pace of expansion reflected a fall in manufacturing production as activity continued to rise elsewhere.

Where output rose, respondents linked this trend to higher new orders and the securing of new customers. New business increased in June, the pace of expansion slowed, and was at a five-month low.

While the pace of output growth eased in June, companies were much more optimistic about the outlook for the coming year, said the report.

Some firms noted muted demand conditions in June, while others witnessed higher activity linked to securing new customers and greater new orders.

Optimism in the 12-month outlook for output surged higher to 83.9 points, from 70.9 in May, the highest level since August 2022 (85.8 points) and moving much closer to the series average (89.4 points) after a period of subdued expectations.

Participants linked the confidence to hopes that sufficient funding would be available to invest in improving and expanding operations.

Elsewhere, output price inflation slowed for the second month running in June and was the weakest since May 2023.

However, selling prices continued to rise sharply as firms passed on higher input costs to customers, the PMI report revealed.
Manufacturing posted the fastest increase in output prices of the four broad sectors covered by the report.

The employment level was broadly stable, and companies taking on extra staff often did so to try to keep on top of workloads.

Companies linked higher outstanding business to shortages of materials, delayed payments from customers and power supply issues.

In the month, suppliers’ delivery times were broadly unchanged, ending a period of shorter lead times stretching back to March 2023.

Some firms noted that poor road conditions had caused delivery delays.