Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 26.72%

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has declared that Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 26.72 per cent in September 2023.

The NBS stated that the September 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.92 per cent when compared to the August 2023 headline inflation rate of 25.80%.

The NBS made this known via its latest Consumer Price Index report for September 2023 released on Monday, October 16.

It noted that on a year-on-year basis, the inflation rate was 5.94 per cent higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2022, which was 20.77 per cent.

The increase in the September 2023 inflation rate was attributed to the increase in some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level.

The NBS noted: “These increases were observed in Food and non-alcoholic Beverages (13.84%), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & other Fuel (4.47%), Clothing & Footwear (2.04%), Transport (1.74%), Furnishings & Household Equipment and maintenance (1.34%), Education (1.05%) and Health (0.80%). Others are Miscellaneous Goods & Services (0.44%), Restaurants & Hotels (0.32%), Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco & Kola (0.29%), Recreation & Culture (0.18%) and Communication (0.18%).

“Likewise, on a month-over-month basis, the headline inflation rate in September 2023 stood at 2.10%, which shows that the average price level decreased by 1.08% when compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (3.18%).

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“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending September 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous corresponding twelve-month period was 22.90%, showing a 5.47% increase compared to 17.43% recorded in September 2022.

“The Food sub-index for September 2023 increased to 30.64% on a year-on-year basis, which was 7.30% points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2022 (23.34%).

“The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was attributed to increases in prices of Oil & fat, Bread & cereals, Potatoes, Yam & other Tubers, Fish, Fruit, Meat, Vegetables and Milk, Cheese, and Eggs.

“However, on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in September 2023 was 2.45%. This was 1.41% lower compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (3.87%).

“The decline in Food inflation was caused by a decrease the average in prices of Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, Bread and cereals, Fruits, and Fish.

“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending September 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 25.65%, which was 6.29% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in September 2022 (19.36%).”

The Star