Inflation rises to 18.60%, the highest in 5 years

The National Bureau of Statistics NBS has said that Nigeria’s inflation rose in June to 18.60%, its highest level in more than five years.

In a statement released today July 15, the NBS said the inflation was fueled by rising prices of food and the high cost of diesel.The new rate is the highest the nation has recorded since January 2017.

The NBS said Friday that the rate is 0.84 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2021, which is 17.75 percent.

“This means that the headline inflation rate increased in the month of June 2022 when compared to the same month in the previous year (i.e., June 2021),” the NBS said in its report.

On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate increased to 1.82 percent in June 2022, which is 0.03 percent higher than the rate recorded in May 2022 (1.78 percent).

With regards to food inflation, the NBS said the composite food index rose to 20.60 percent in June 2022 on a year-on-year basis, the NBS said. The rate of changes in average price level, however, declined by 1.23 percent compared to 21.83 percent in June 2021.

According to the bureau, the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products, potatoes, yam, and other tubers, meat, fish, oil and fat, and wine.

On a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased to 2.05 percent in June 2022, up by 0.03 percent from 2.01 percent recorded in May 2022.

The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending June 2022 over the previous twelve-month average is 18.62 percent, which is 1.10 percent points decline from the average annual rate of change recorded in June 2021 (19.72 percent).

The NBS noted that in June 2022, all items inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Bauchi (21.99 percent), Kogi (21.37 percent), Ebonyi (20.73 percent) while Adamawa (16.14 percent), Sokoto (16.31 percent) and Jigawa (16.37 percent) recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.

“On a month-on-month basis, however, June 2022, recorded the highest increases in Kogi (2.69 percent), Ondo (2.65 percent), and Kaduna (2.61 percent), while Adamawa (-0.26 percent), Abuja (-.0.03 percent) and Sokoto (0.79 percent) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation,” the bureau said.