Clara Nwachukwu
Nigeria’s annual inflation in July rose higher to 19.64%, the highest in 17 years, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This was 2.27% higher than the rate recorded in July 2021, which was 17.38%.
The CPI, which measures the level of price change in goods and services, also showed that “On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 %, which was 0.001% higher than the rate recorded in June 2022 (1.816 %).
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending July 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.75%, showing a 0.46% increase compared to 16.30% recorded in July 2021.”
Broken further, food inflation rose to 22.02% year-on-year in July, which was 0.99% higher than the 21.03% rate recorded in July 2021. The spike was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam, meat, fish, oil and other items.
“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-month period ending July 2022 over the previous twelve-month average was 18.75%, which was a 1.42% point decline from the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2021 (20.16%).
“On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July was 2.04%, this was a 0.01% insignificant decline compared to the rate recorded in June 2022 (2.05%). This decline is attributed to a reduction in the prices of some food items like tubers, maize, garri, and vegetables,” the NBS report said.
Other contributing factors
Similarly, the “All items less farm produce” or core inflation, excluding prices of farm produce peaked at 16.26% during the period in review, fuelled by higher gas, liquid and solid fuel, transportation by road and air, garments and hire of clothing among other contributing factors.
The rate of increase was 2.54% higher than the 13.72% recorded in July 2021. “On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 1.75% in July 2022. This was up by 0.20% when compared to 1.56% recorded in June 2022,” the report said.
The rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam, meat, fish, oil and other items.
Also, urban inflation was 2.08% higher at 20.09% in July year-on-year from 18.01% in July 2021, while rural inflation galloped to 19.22% from 16.75% in the same corresponding period.
Across states in the country, the report disclosed that the annual rate of rise in inflation was highest in Akwa Ibom (22.88%), Ebonyi (22.51%), Kogi (22.08%), while Jigawa (16.62%), Kaduna (17.04%) and Borno (18.04%) recorded the slowest rise in headline Year-on-Year inflation.
“However, on a month-on-month basis, July 2022 recorded the highest increases in Adamawa (2.87%), Abuja (2.84%), Oyo (2.77%), while Bauchi (0.82%), Kano (0.83%) and Niger (1.03%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.”
In terms of food inflation, the rate was highest in Kwara (29.28%), Akwa Ibom (27.22%), and Kogi (26.08%), while Kaduna (17.16%), Jigawa (17.46%) and Anambra (19.25%) recorded the slowest rise year-on-year.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was highest in Kwara (3.90%), Delta (3.61%), and Benue (2.94%), while Taraba (0.14%), Gombe (0.94%), while Niger (1.13%) recorded the slowest rise.
