The monthly consumer price index (CPI) report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday, shows that the country’s inflation rate declined for the seventh consecutive time to 15.99 per cent in October 2021.
The CPI measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.
The latest figure shows an improvement of 1.76 per cent points higher than the 14.23 percent recorded in September 2020.
According to the report, increases were recorded in all classifications of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.
“On month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.98 percent in October 2021, this is 0.17 percent lower than the rate recorded in September 2021 (1.15) percent.
“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending October 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.96 percent, showing 0.13 percent point from 16.83 percent recorded in September 2021,” the report read in part.
The CPI report shows that on a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 1.02 percent in October 2021, down by 0.19 percentage point from the rate (1.21 per cent) recorded in September 2021.
The rural index also rose by 0.95 per cent in October 2021, down by 0.15 percentage point from the rate (1.10 per cent) recorded in September 2021.
The report pegged the 12-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index to be 17.53 percent in October 2021. This is higher than 17.41 per cent reported in September 2021, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in October 2021 is 16.39 percent compared to 16.26 percent recorded in September 2021.
The report further showed that the composite food index rose by 18.34 per cent in October 2021 compared to 17.38 percent in October and that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of food products, such as coffee, tea and cocoa, milk, cheese and eggs, bread and cereals, vegetables and potatoes, yam and other tubers.
On a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 0.91 per cent in October 2021, down by 0.35 percentage points from 1.26 percent recorded in September 2021.
Nigeria’s inflation rate has recorded a monthly decline since March 2021, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) projected it may drop to 13 per cent this year and a single-digit rate by 2022.
