The Managing Director of Total Nig. Plc, Mr Domnique Thorlorn, says that the deregulation of the downstream sub-sector of the oil industry will boost the nation’’s economy and attract foreign investment. Thorlorn spoke in Lagos on Tuesday at a dinner held ahead of his company’’s annual general meeting slated for Wednesday.

He said that the deregulation would help to save money budgeted annually to subsidise the cost of petroleum products.

The managing director said that deregulation would also encourage investment in local refineries by both local and foreign entrepreneurs. He said that a situation whereby the government used a large chunk of its resources to subsidise the cost of products was untidy, adding that it was making the economy vulnerable.

Thorlorn said that the “costly subsidies’’ were having negative impact on the economy as they constituted a disincentive to investment. He said that countries such as Indonesia and Ghana had removed subsidies on the prices of consumer goods and were now reaping economic growth.