Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Hits 28.2% As Food Prices Rise

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate reached a 20-year peak of 28.2 per cent in November.

NBS revealed this in its latest publication on Friday noting that the figure is higher than the October 2023 headline inflation rate of 27.33 per cent.

The latest record is the highest recorded inflation rate based on data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) website. It is worth noting that the bank’s data collection began in 2023.

Additionally, the NBS stated that the food inflation rate has also risen to 32.84 per cent on a year-on-year basis, marking an increase of 8.72 per cent points compared to the rate recorded in November 2022 (24.13 per cent).

“The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and coffee, tea and cocoa,” the NBS report noted.

In November 2023, the food inflation rate experienced a month-on-month increase of 2.42 per cent, marking a 0.51 per cent rise compared to the rate observed in October 2023 (1.91 per cent).

This upward trend was primarily attributed to the surge in average prices of essential food items such as bread and cereals, oil and fat, meat, coffee, tea and cocoa, potatoes, yams, and other tubers.

Furthermore, the core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 22.38 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

“This is up by 4.39 per cent when compared to the 17.99 per cent recorded in November 2022. The highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by road, medical services, passenger transport by air, actual and imputed rentals for housing, pharmaceutical products, accommodation service etc,” the report added.

In recent years, food pieces have been on the rise across Nigeria. The situation deteriorated due to the impact of government policies such as the removal of subsidies on petrol, among others.

President Bola Tinubu, on 29 May, during his inauguration, announced the removal of subsidy on petrol. This development has caused hardship for many Nigerians with its attendant increase in the prices of goods and services.

Over the past months, the naira has depreciated by over 50 per cent at both the authorised and unauthorised market segments, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced in June that it had collapsed all forex windows into the Investors and exporters (I&E) window.

Inflation has remained high in Africa’s largest economy, prompting the apex bank to hike interest rates to their highest levels in nearly two decades.