The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), says South East residents paid the highest average price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly referred to as petrol in Dec. 2021.

The NBS said this in its “Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch for December 2021’’ released on its website on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to it, the highest average price was recorded in the South East zone at N167.38 while the South West had the least average price of N164.87 in December.

“The average price paid by consumers for petrol increased by 0.04 per cent on a year- on-year basis to N165.77 in Dec. 2021 when compared to the value of N165.70 in Dec. 2020.

“The value decreased on month-on-month basis to N165.77 in Dec. 2021 from N167.60, showing a decrease of -1.09 per cent when compared to the value recorded in Nov. 2021.

“States with the highest average price of petrol were Ebonyi (N170.43), Kogi (N168.92) and Jigawa (N168.80).”

The NBS added that states with the lowest average price of petrol were Kano (N163.57), Ogun (N163.00) and Zamfara (N167.50).

Meanwhile, the average retail price of Automotive Gas Oil popularly known as diesel paid by consumers increased by 28.97 per cent on a year-on-year basis from N224.37 per liter in November to N289.37 per liter in December.

It said that on a month-on-month basis, an increase of 4.15 per cent was recorded from N277.83 in the November to an average of N289.37 in December.

“Looking at the variations in the state prices, the top three states with the highest average price of the product in December include, Enugu (N349.29), Borno (N340.00) and Oyo (N326.25).

“Furthermore, the top three lowest prices were recorded in the northern region: Kebbi (N232.36), Yobe (N226.61) and Katsina (N225.00).”

The report said that the zonal representation of average price of diesel showed that South-East had the highest price of N307.35 while North West had the lowest price of N263.65 when compared with other zones.