Inflation rate hits 13.22% — highest jump since Oct 2016

The consumer price index which measures inflation rose by 0.40 percentage points between July and August 2020 on a year-on-year basis, the highest increase recorded since October 2016.

According to the August CPI/Inflation report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the rate of inflation stood at 13.22 percent in August; higher than the 12.82 percent recorded in July.

Inflation measures the rate at which the prices of goods and services increase over a period of time.

The last time Nigeria’s inflation rate was in this region was in March 2018 when the economy was recovering from the 2016 recession and inflation rate was on a decline from the 18 percent recorded during the recession.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 1.34 percent in August 2020. This is 0.09 percent higher than the rate recorded in July 2020 (1.25 percent),” the report read.

“The urban inflation rate increased by 13.83 percent (year-on-year) in August 2020 from 13.40 percent recorded in July 2020, while the rural inflation rate increased by 12.65 percent in August 2020 from 12.28 percent in July 2020.

“The composite food index rose by 16.00 percent in August 2020 compared to 15.48 percent in July 2020.”

According to the NBS, the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, fruits, oils and fats and vegetables.

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 10.52 percent in August 2020, up by 0.42 percentage points when compared with 10.10 percent recorded in July 2020.

The highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by air, hospital services, medical services, pharmaceutical products, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment, vehicle spare parts, Motor cars, passenger transport by road, miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling, repair of furniture and paramedical services.

On a year-on-year basis, the rate of increase in the prices was recorded in Kogi (17.29 percent), Bauchi (15.77 percent) and Ebonyi and Yobe (14.71 percent), while Lagos (11.45 percent), Kwara (11.22 percent) and Abuja (11.17 percent) recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.