Inflation rate hits 12.2% — highest in 21 months

The consumer price index, which measures inflation, hit a 21-month high in February.

According to the CPI/Inflation report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday, inflation increased to 12.20% in February, an increase of 0.07 percentage points from the 12.13% recorded in January.

The last time the inflation rate was in this region was in May 2018. At the time, it was 11.61%.

“On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 0.79% in February 2020. This is 0.08% rate lower than the rate recorded in January 2020 (0.87%),” the report read.

“The urban inflation rate increased by 12.85% (year-on-year) in February 2020 from 12.78% recorded in January 2020, while the rural inflation rate increased by 11.61% in February 2020 from 11.54% in January 2020.

“On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.82% in February 2020, up by 0.10 from 0.92% recorded in January 2020, while the rural index also rose by 0.76% in February 2020, down by 0.07 from the rate recorded in January 2020 (0.83%).”

According to the report, food inflation increased to 14.90% in February while core inflation, which excludes the price of volatile agricultural items, increased to 9.43%.

“All items inflation on year on year basis was highest in Bauchi (14.47%), Niger (14.06%) and Plateau (13.98%), while Borno (10.46%), Abuja (9.68%) and Kwara (9.59%) recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation,”

“Food inflation on a year on year basis was highest in Sokoto (17.12%), Plateau (16.99%) and Gombe (16.96%), while Nasarawa (13.50%), Bauchi /Katsina (13.04%) and Bayelsa (11.89%) recorded the slowest rise.”

The consumer price index measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.