Nigeria’s inflation rose to 26.72 per cent for the month of September 2023.
This is according to the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
The report represents a 0.92 per cent -point rise from the previous month’s 25.80 per cent.
Month-on-month inflation rose to 2.18 per cent – a 1.08 per cent difference from the previous month of August.
Year-on-year, food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for the most significant share of the inflation at 13.84 per cent, followed by housing water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 4.47 per cent, and clothing and footwear at 2.04 per cent.
Food inflation recorded a sharp rise to 30.64 per cent in August 2023, a 1.30 per cent-point increase from the previous month and 7.30 per cent points higher than the corresponding period in 2022.
On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in August 2023 reached 2.45 per cent, which was 1.41 per cent points lower compared to the rate in August 2023 (3.87 per cent).
According to the report, the drop in month-on-month food inflation resulted from a reduced rate of growth in the average costs of potatoes, yam, and other tubers, bread and cereals, and fruits, as well as fish.
The annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending September 2023 averaged 25.65 per cent, a 6.29 per cent-point increase from September 2022 (9.36 per cent).
The “All items less farm produce,” which excludes volatile agricultural produce prices and energy, registered a year-on-year rate of 21.84% in September 2023, up by 4.35% compared to September 2022’s 17.49%.
On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate for September 2023 was 2.22 per cent, a slight increase from 2.18 per cent in September 2023.
The average twelve-month annual inflation rate for the twelve months ending August 2023 was 19.55 per cent, a 4.48 per cent point increase from September 2022.
The most significant price hikes were observed in the costs of passenger transport by road, passenger transport by air, medical services, furniture repair, maintenance, and the repair of personal transport equipment, among others.
For September 2023, the highest year-on-year all items inflation rates were observed in Kogi (32.95%), Rivers (30.63%), and Lagos (30.04%), whereas Borno (21.05%), Jigawa (22.39%), and Benue (23.22%) reported the most gradual increases in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis.
In September 2023, the highest year-on-year food inflation rates were recorded in Kogi (39.37%), Rivers (35.95%), and Lagos (35.66%), whereas Jigawa (23.41%), Borno (25.29%), and Sokoto (25.38%) reported the most modest increases in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.
