Petroleum retail spending is higher in Nigeria and Egypt than their 2019 peaks, a sign that some economies are reopening at a faster rate, according to MasterCard.
This was disclosed in the Post COVID-19 Recovery Insight by Mastercard, issued in a statement by Mr David Mann, MasterCard’s Chief Economist for the Middle East and Africa (MEA), on Sunday in Lagos.
The report revealed that although global travel has remained uneven, there has been a rebound in ground travel and pick-up in domestic flight bookings showing encouraging signs. It also includes the balance between leisure and business, local and long-distance travel, saving and spending. The report also looked at the spending categories seeing an uptick and the signal for travel recovery.
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“There are indicators of recovery across some markets in the Middle East and Africa, for example, gas spending in Nigeria and Egypt are already above 2019 peaks,” they stated.
They added that Global gasoline spending is up by 13% from its previous peak in 2019. Adding that in Egypt and Nigeria, spendings at gas stations are already higher than their 2019 peaks, while in the UAE and in Kenya, they have equalised previous levels.
Regarding air travel, the report stated that in markets like the UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya, international flight bookings are climbing, but are still at a fraction of where they were before the pandemic began, citing that numbers are down significantly globally, although the trajectory is upwards.
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