Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 24.08% in July- NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s headline inflation rate for the month of July 2023 increased to 24.08% compared to 22.79% recorded in June 2023.

This is contained in Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for July 2023 released on Tuesday that shows the latest figure to be the highest in 2023.

According to the Statistician General of the federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, this represents an increase of 1.29% from the June 2023 headline inflation.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 4.44 % higher than the rate recorded in July 2022, which was 19.64%.

The report attributed the increase in the headline index for July 2023 to an increase in contributions in food & non-alcoholic beverages (12.47%), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel (4.03%), clothing & footwear (1.84%), transport (1.57%), furnishings & household equipment & maintenance (1.21%), education (0.95%) and health (0.72%).

Others are miscellaneous goods & services (0.40%), restaurants & hotels (0.29%), alcoholic beverages, tobacco & kola (0.26%), recreation & culture (0.17%) and communication (0.16%).

On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2023 rose to 2.89%, an average increase of 0.76 % on the general price level relative to June 2023.

Food component
The food component sub-index for July 2023 increased by 26.98% on a year-on-year basis; this was 4.97% higher than the 22.02% recorded in June 2022.

According to the report, the rise in food index on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fruits, meat, vegetable, milk, cheese, and eggs.

Similarly, the Food inflation rate on a month-on-month basis, in July 2023 rose to 3.45%, this was 1.06% points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2023 (2.40%).

Core inflation, which is all items less farm produce, that is excluding the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 20.47% in July 2023 on a year-on-year basis. It rose by 4.41% when compared to the 16.06% recorded in July 2022.

This was driven by an increase in prices of passenger transport by air, passenger transport by road, vehicle spare parts, medical services, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment etc.

On a month-on-month basis, the Core inflation rate stood at 2.11% in July 2023. This shows an increase of 0.34% when compared to the 1.77% recorded in June 2023.

Urban and Rural Inflation
The inflation rate in July 2023 for Urban consumers was 25.83% on a year-on-year basis. This indicated an increase of 5.74% points higher compared to the 20.09% recorded in July 2022.

Similarly, the Urban month-on-month inflation rate rose to 3.05% in July 2023, which was 0.75% points higher compared to June 2023 (2.31%).

Also, the inflation rate for rural consumers in the month of July 2023 was 22.49% on a year-on-year basis; this was 3.26% points higher compared to the 19.22% recorded in July 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, the Rural inflation rate in July 2023 was 2.74%, up by 0.78% points compared to June 2023 (1.96%).

State Analyses
The analyses of the states show that the all-item index for July 2023, on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (28.45%), Lagos (27.30%) and Ondo (26.83%); while the states with slowest rise in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis were Borno (20.71%), Jigawa (20.85%) and Sokoto (20.92%) during the month under review.

On a month-on-month basis, July 2023 headline inflation recorded the highest increase in Kogi (4.99%), Abia (4.12%), and Akwa Ibom (4.07%). On the other hand, Jigawa (0.16%), Taraba (1.09%) and Yobe (1.10%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.

State-level analyses of the food index in July 2023, on a year-on-year basis, showed the highest increases in Kogi (34.53%), Lagos (32.52%) and Bayelsa (31.31%). While Jigawa (20.90%), Sokoto (21.63%) and Kebbi (22.45%) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation during the month.

On a month-on-month basis, Food inflation for July 2023 was highest in Kogi (6.73%), Akwa Ibom (5.64%) and Bayelsa (4.59%), while Taraba (-0.21%), Jigawa (0.28%) and Yobe (0.90%) recorded the slowest food inflationary rate on a month-on-month basis.