PETROLEUM PRODUCTS PRICING AND ECONOMIC CHANGES OF NIGERIA, 2000-2024

The study examined the effect of petroleum products pricing on economic changes in Nigeria from period of 2000-2024. Specific objectives include to: examine the effect of price of premium motor spirit (PMS) and ascertain the effect of price automotive gasoline oil (AGO) on real gross domestic product (RGDP) in Nigeria. ex post facto research design was adopted. The study adopted Auto Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) regression technique was used to test formulated hypotheses. The findings revealed that price of premium motor spirit had a negative and insignificant effect on real gross domestic products (RGDP) (coff = -0.082082, pv =0.6564>0.05), price of automotive gasoline oil had a negative and insignificant effect on real gross domestic products (RGDP) (coff = -0.007322, pv =0.9671>0.05). Based on the findings, the study recommended that removal of subsidy on price of premium motor spirit should not be implemented urgently to prevent hike in the prices of basic house hold commodities in the economy only when government has put local refining in place and local refining of crude oil should be encouraged to boost production and availability of Price of automotive gasoline oil products for domestically use. This can be achieved through the setting of guidelines and standards for operators of illegal refineries to enable them operate legally as destroying the facilities amounts to waste of capital to the operators and the nation