Higher food prices and other items buoyed by higher fuel prices occasioned by subsidy removal, pushed Nigeria’s annual inflation rate to 22.79% in June from 22.41% in May, says the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) or inflation report released today, put the rate of increase at 0.38% against the level recorded a month before.
On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 4.19% higher than the 18.60% recorded in June 2022.
“This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in June 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., June 2022),” NBS said.
The CPI report said the food inflation rate rose to 25.25% in June from 24.82% in May.
The NBS listed other contributory items to the acceleration in the headline index to include food & non-alcoholic beverages (11.81%), housing water, electricity, gas & other fuel (3.81%), clothing & footwear (1.74%), transport (1.48%), and furnishings & household equipment & maintenance (1.15%).
Others are education (0.90%), health (0.68%), miscellaneous goods & services (0.38%), restaurant & hotels (0.28%), alcoholic beverage, tobacco & kola (0.25%), recreation & culture (0.16%), and communication (0.15%).
On a month-on-month basis, the rate of rise was also higher as the headline inflation rate in June was 2.13%, or 0.19% above the 1.94% recorded in May.
“This means that in June 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.19 per cent higher relative to May 2023.
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending June 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 21.54 per cent, showing a 5.00 per cent increase compared to 16.54 per cent recorded in June 2022,” the report said.
Higher food inflation was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fruits, meat, vegetable, milk, cheese, and eggs.
Food Inflation
The Food inflation rate in June 2023 was 25.25% year-on-year, a 4.65% higher than the 20.60% recorded in June 2022.
The report attributed the rise in food inflation to “increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fruits, meat, vegetable, milk, cheese, and eggs.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in June 2023 was 2.40%. This was 0.21% points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023 (2.19%).
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending June 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 24.03%. This was a 5.41 per cent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in June 2022 (18.62%),” it said.
Also, the core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce rose to 20.27% year-on-year in June, up by 4.53% above the 15.75% recorded in same period in 2022.
The highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by air, gas, vehicle spare parts, liquid fuel, fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment, medical services, passenger transport by road etc.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Core Inflation rate was 1.74% in June 2023. It stood at 1.81% in May 2023, down by 0.07%.
“The average twelve months annual inflation rate was 18.71% for the twelve months ending June 2023; this was 4.65% points higher than the 14.06% recorded in June 2022,” it said.
