Victor Ezeja
Nigeria’s inflation rate has again recorded an increase following a fresh spike in prices of fuel and other commodities across the country.
According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, 15 November, the headline inflation rate accelerated to 33.88 per cent in October 2024. This is 1.18 per cent points compared to the September 2024 headline inflation rate which was 32.70 per cent.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThis is the second time the inflation rate has increased since it eased in June 2024 to 34.19 per cent after a persistent surge for 19 consecutive months. It dropped to 33.40 per cent in July and 32.15 per cent in August, before moving up to 32.70 per cent in September.
This latest increase in the headline inflation rate has been attributed to the fresh hike in the price of petroleum products, especially Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, recorded last month and the foreign exchange rate volatility as the naira continues to weaken both at official and parallel market.
According to the NBS CPI report, the headline inflation rate increased by 6.55 per cent on a year-on-year basis when compared to October 2023 rate of 27.33 per cent.
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in October 2024 was 2.64%, which was 0.12% higher than the rate recorded in September 2024 (2.52%). This means that in October 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in September 2024,” the report further stated.
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According to the report, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages still dominate in terms of contribution to the headline inflation rate.
Food inflation
The food inflation also witnessed a surge of 1.39 per cent from 37.77 per cent in September to 39.16 per cent in October 2024.
On a year-on-year basis, the food inflation rate increased by 7.64 points compared to the rate recorded in October 2023 (31.52 per cent).
Explaining the cause of the increase in the food inflation rate, the NBS report said: “The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items: Guinea Corn, Rice, Maize Grains, Rice, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Water Yam, Coco Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, etc (Oil and Fats Class) and Milo Lipton, Bournvita, etc (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class).”
On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in October 2024 was 2.94 per cent which shows a 0.30 per cent increase compared to the rate recorded in September 2024 (2.64 per cent).
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
