BREAKING: Nigeria’s inflation rises to 32.70% amid fuel price hike

Nigeria’s headline inflation increased to 32.70 percent in September 2024 from 32.15 recorded in August amid the hike in the pump price of petrol.

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed this on Tuesday in its Consumer Price Index and Inflation report for September 2024.

Looking at the movement, the September 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.55 percent compared to the August 2024 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.98 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2023 (26.72 percent).

This indicated that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in September 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (September 2023).

Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in September 2024 was 2.52 percent, which was 0.30 percent higher than the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.22 percent).

“This means that in September 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in August 2024,” the report stated.

Similarly, food inflation rose to 37.77 percent in September from 37.52 in August, 2024.

This comes on the back of the increase in the price of petrol on September 3rd and 16th by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.

Recall that NNPCL increased fuel price to N897 per liter in September 2024 from N600 per liter.

DAILY POST reports that the increase in the price of petrol has a direct impact on transportation fares and by extension the prices of goods and services across the country.

The September spike in headline inflation comes after the country recorded a decline in July and August 2024.

The Central Bank of Nigeria in its September 297th Monetary Policy Meeting raised the country’s interest rate by 50 basis points to 27.25 percent in a move to tackle inflation.