UPDATED: Nigeria inflation rate up 34.19%

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate increased for the fifth consecutive month to 34.19 per cent as residents of Africa’s most populous country grapple with a cost of living crisis.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), released on Monday, the June figure is 0.24 per cent higher than the 33.95 per cent recorded in May. The lowest figure in 2024 was 29.90 per cent, recorded in January.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.40 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2023, which was 22.79 per cent.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in the month of June 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e. June 2023),” the NBS said.

The bureau also said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in June 2024 was 2.31 per cent, which was 0.17 per cent higher than the rate recorded in May 2024 (2.14 per cent).

This, it said, means that in the month of June 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in May 2024.

According to the report, the food inflation rate in June 2024 rose 40.87 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 15.62 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2023 (25.25 per cent).

In recent times, Nigerians have battled high food prices since the president announced the removal of petrol subsidies last year and also floated the naira so the value of the Nigerian currency can be determined by market forces.

This prompted the Nigerian government to implement measures and reforms to safeguard the country’s foreign exchange market and combat speculative activities.

Last Monday, President Bola Tinubu unveiled some proactive measures meant to address skyrocketing food prices in the country.

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Details

In its inflation report Saturday, the NBS said the contributions of items on the divisional year-on-year level to the increase in the headline index are “food & non-alcoholic beverages (17.71 per cent), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel (5.72 per cent), clothing & footwear (2.62 per cent), and transport (2.23 per cent).”

Others are “furnishings & household equipment & maintenance (1.72 per cent), education (1.35 per cent), health (1.03 per cent), miscellaneous goods & services (0.57 per cent), restaurant & hotels (0.41 per cent), alcoholic beverage, tobacco & kola (0.37 per cent), recreation & culture (0.23 per cent) and communication (0.23 per cent).”

The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve-month ending June 2024 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve-month period was 30.00 per cent, showing an 8.45 per cent increase compared to 21.54 per cent recorded in June 2023.

Food inflation

The NBS said the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of millet whole grain, garri, guinea corn, etc (bread and cereals class), yam, water yam, coco yam (potatoes, yam & other tubers class), groundnut oil, palm oil, etc (oil & fats class) and catfish dried, dried fish-sardine, mudfish (fish class), etc.

According to the bureau, the month-on-month food inflation rate in June 2024 was 2.55 per cent, which shows a 0.26 per cent increase compared to the rate recorded in May 2024 (2.28 per cent).

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending June 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 35.35 per cent, which was an 11.31 per cent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in June 2023 (24.03 per cent),” the report said.