Inflation rises slightly by 0.6% in August ― NBS

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that inflation continued its downward acceleration albeit slowly in August, rising only slightly by 0.06 per cent.

In the monthly report released on Tuesday, Consumer Price Index (CPI) settled at 11.02 per cent compared to July figure of 11.08 per cent.

“Disinflation continued in August 2019 despite several pronouncements regarding restrictions on the import of some food items, minimum wage and the recent border closures.

“It is important to note that with respect to the latter, the border was only closed 20 August 2019 with only 11 days of 31days for any significant impact to be felt either way on prices”, NBS clarified”, the agency said on its website.

According to NBS, the harvest season and existing weak consumer demand and their natural effect to slow down food and other prices will also play a major role in determining the direction of inflation.

In August, NBS noted that all major indices slowed except urban inflation year on year.

The composite food index rose by 13.17percent in August 2019 compared to 13.39 per cent in July 2019.

It explained that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of oils and fats, meat, bread and cereals, Potatoes, yam and other tubers and Fish.

“On a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.22 per cent in August 2019, down by 0.04 per cent points from 1.26 per cent recorded in July 2019.

The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending August 2019 over the previous twelve-month average was 13.458 per cent, 0.002 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2019 (13.460) per cent”.

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 8.68 per cent in August 2019, down by 0.12 per cent when compared with 8.80 per cent recorded in July 2019.

On month-on-month basis, the core sub-index increased by 0.67 per cent in August 2019. This was down by 0.1 per cent when compared with 0.77 per cent recorded in July 2019”.

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The highest increases, NBS said were recorded in prices of cleaning, repair and hire of clothing, repair of household appliances, Hospital services, Glassware, tableware and household utensils, passenger transport by air and repair and hire of footwear.

Average 12-month annual rate of change of the index was 9.41 per cent for the twelve-month period ending August 2019; this is 0.11 per cent points lower than 9.52 per cent recorded in July 2019.

During the month, all items inflation on year on year basis was highest in Kebbi (14.97%), Kano (13.24%) and Bauchi (13.00%), while Cross River (8.97%), Delta (8.63%) and Kwara (8.32%) recorded the slowest rise in headline Year on Year inflation.