Rising food, gas prices push Nigerian inflation to 16.82%

The consumer price index, which measures the rate of increase in the price of goods and services, rose to 16.82 per cent in April 2022, due to surging food and gas prices.

The rate is 1.3 per cent points lower compared to the rate recorded in April 2021 (18.12) per cent but the highest since September 2021 (16.63 per cent).

The headline inflation rate thus slowed down in April 2022 compared to the same month in the previous year.

The National Bureau of Statistics said this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for April 2022, released on Monday.

According to the report, increases were recorded in all classifications of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.

“On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased to 1.76 per cent in April 2022, this is a 0.02 per cent rate higher than the rate recorded in March 2022 (1.74) per cent,” the report reads.

“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending April 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period is 16.45 per cent, showing a 0.1 per cent decrease compare to the 16.54 per cent recorded in March 2022.

“The urban inflation rate increased to 17.35 per cent (year-on-year) in April 2022 from 18.68 per cent recorded in April 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 16.32 per cent in April 2022 from 17.57 per cent in April 2021.”

Since February, the Russia-Ukraine war has caused a hike in global oil and food prices.