Nigeria’s inflation jumps to 21.09% on food price hike

Nigeria’s inflation rate again surged to a new rate of 21.09 per cent in October 2022, representing a 0.32 per cent  increase over 20.77 per cent recorded in September, 2022.

This is largely due to food inflation in October, which increased to 23.72 per cent from 18.34 per cent in the corresponding month last year, according to the latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The bureau stated that flood inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products such as potatoes, yams, other tubers, oil and fat.

On a month-on-month basis, it said the food inflation rate in October was 1.23 per cent, which is a 0.21 per cent decline compared to the rate recorded in September 2022 (1.43 per cent).

It stated that the decline was due to the reduction in prices of some food items such as tubers, palm oil, maize, beans, and vegetables.

Generally, the headline inflation shows on a month-on-month was 1.2 per cent which is 0.11% lower than the rate recorded in September 2022 (1.36 per cent).

“The percentage change in the average CPI for the 12 months ending October 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12-month period was 17.86 per cent, showing a 0.91 per cent increase compared to the 16.96 per cent recorded in October 2021.”

The NBS however said that over the past three months, there had been a decline in headline inflation on a month-on-month basis due to a drop in the changes in the food index influenced by the harvesting season.

It added that the increase was owing to the disruption in the supply of food products, increase in cost of importation due to the persistent currency depreciation and general increase in the cost of production.