Nigeria's inflation rate soars to 33.69%

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Nigeria’s headline inflation rate skyrocketed to 33.69 per cent in April relative to the March 2024 rate which was 33.20 per cent.

Looking at the movement, the April 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.49 percent points when compared to the March 2024 rate.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that released the data on Wednesday attributed the rise in inflation to increases in food prices.

The NBS reported that food inflation rate in April 2024 was 40.53 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 15.92 percent points higher compared to the 24.61 percent rate recorded in April 2023.

“The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items Millet flour, Garri, Bread, Wheat Flour prepacked, Semovita (which are under Bread and Cereals Class), Yam Tuber, Water Yam, cocoyam (under Potatoes, Yam and other Tubers Class), Coconut Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Vegetable Oil, etc (under Oil and fat), Dried Fish Sadine, Catfish Dried, Mudfish Dried (under Fish class), Beef Head, Beef Feet, Liver, Frozen.

Chicken (under Meat class), Mongo, Banana, Grapefruit (under Fruit Class), Lipton Tea, Bournvita, Milo (under Coffee, Tea and Cocoa Class),” the NBS stated.

However, the NBS explained that on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in April 2024 was 2.50 percent, which shows a 1.11 percent decrease compared to the 3.62 percent rate recorded in March 2024.

The NBS explained that “the fall in Food inflation on a Month-on-Month basis was caused by a fall in the rate of increase in the average prices of Yam, Water Yam, Irish Potatoes (under Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Beer, Local Beer (under Tobacco Class), Milo, Bournvita, Nescafe (under Coffee, Tea, and Coco Class), Groundnut Oil, Palm Oil (under Oil and Fats Class), Egg, Fresh Milk, Powered Milk, Tin Milk (under Milk, Cheese, and Eggs Class), Soft Drinks e.g. Malt Guinness, Coco-cola, etc, Spirit (Local Production), Chelsea, Seaman Schnapps (under Spirit Class), Wine and Fruit e.g., Water Melon, Pineapple, Banana, Pawpaw, etc.”

According to the NBS, the average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve-month ending April 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 32.74 percent, which was a 9.52 percent points increase from the 23.22 percent average annual rate of change recorded in April 2023.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.47 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2023, which was 22.22 percent.

This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in April 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., April 2023).

Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in April 2024 was 2.29 percent, showing 0.73 per cent lower than the 3.02 percent rate recorded in March 2024.

This means that in April 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is less than the rate of increase in the average price level in March 2024.

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