Bleeding economy: Nigeria’s inflation rate ticks up to 34.19% in June, prices of food skyrocket

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased by 0.24 points to 34.19 per cent in June from  33.95 percent in May, indicating a bleeding economic situation for the West African country.

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed this today in its Consumer Price Index for June 2024.

The statistics bureau reported that food inflation rose to 40.87% in June, up from 40.66% in May 2024, driven by price increases in staple foods such as millet, garri, guinea corn, bread, cereals, yam, water yam, coco yam, and other tubers.

NBS said: “In June 2024, the headline inflation rate increased to 34.19 percent relative to the May 2024 headline inflation rate which was 33.95 percent.

“Looking at the movement, the June 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.24 percentage points when compared to the May 2024 headline inflation rate.

“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.4 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2023, which was 22.79 percent .

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

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in June 2024 was 2.31 percent, which was 0.17 percentage higher than the rate recorded in May 2024 (2.14 percent). “This means that in the month of June 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in May 2024.”

On food inflation, the bureau said: “The Food inflation rate in June 2024 was 40.87 percent on a year-on-year basis, which was 15.62 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2023 (25.25%).

“The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items: Millet Whole grain, Garri, Guinea corn, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Water Yam, Coco Yam (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Groundnut Oil, Palm Oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class) and Catfish Dried, Dried Fish-Sadine, Mudfish (Fish Class), etc.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in June 2024 was 2.55 percent which shows a 0.26 percent increase compared to the rate recorded in May 2024 (2.28 percent).

“The rise in Food inflation on a Month-on-Month basis was caused by the rise in the rate of increase in the average prices of Groundnut Oil, Palm Oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class), Water Yam, Coco Yam, Cassava, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Tobacco, Catfish Fresh, Croaker, Mudfish Fresh, Snail, etc, (Fish Class).”

NBS stressed that in June food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Edo (47.34 percent), Kogi (46.37 percent), Cross River (45.28 percent), while Nasarawa (34.31 percent), Bauchi (34.78 percent) and Adamawa (35.96 percent), recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on year-on-year basis.

It added: “On a month-on-month basis, however, June 2024 food inflation was highest in Yobe (4.75 percent), Adama-wa (4.74 percent), and Taraba (4.12 percent), while Nasarawa (0.14 percent), Kano (0.96 percent) and Lagos (1.25 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation.”