Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 24.08 per cent in July

The National Bureau of Statistics has announced that Nigeria’s annual inflation rate has jumped to 24.08 per cent in July from 22.79 percent a month earlier.

The NBS said the July 2023 inflation rate indicated an increase of 1.29 per cent points when compared to June 2023 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 4.44 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2022, which was 19.64 per cent.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in July 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., July 2022),” it said.

The food inflation rate moved to 26.98 per cent in July from 25.25 per cent in June.

The NBS also said the contributions of items on the divisional level to the acceleration in the headline index are food & non-alcoholic beverages (12.47 per cent), housing water, electricity, gas & other fuel (4.03 per cent), clothing & footwear (1.84 per cent), transport (1.57 per cent), furnishings & household equipment & maintenance (1.21 per cent), education (0.95 per cent), health (0.72 per cent), miscellaneous goods & services (0.40 per cent), restaurant & hotels (0.29 per cent), alcoholic beverage, tobacco & kola (0.26 per cent), recreation & culture (0.17 per cent) and communication (0.16 per cent).

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in July 2023 was 3.45 per cent, this was 1.06 per cent higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2023 (2.40 per cent).

“On a month-on-month basis, the report said the rise was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, oil, and fat.

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-month ending July 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 24.46 per cent, which was a 5.71 per cent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2022 (18.75 per cent),” it said.

Nigeria has been struggling with rising inflation due to some policies of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration, especially the suspended subsidy on petrol, among others.

In Africa’s largest economy, inflation has remained high, causing the central bank to raise interest rates to their highest levels in almost 20 years.