Nigeria’s inflation rate drops to 32.15% — second decline in 2024

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s inflation rate declined to 32.15 percent in August.

This is the second consecutive decline recorded in 2024.

The data is captured in the NBS consumer price index (CPI) report for August, released on Monday.

The NBS said the CPI, which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, declined by 2.22 percent (month-on-month) compared to the rate recorded in July 2024.

According to the bureau, food inflation also dropped to 37.52 percent in the month under review as prices of major food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to slow down.

NBS also said the headline inflation rate in August showed a decrease of “1.25% points when compared to the July 2024 headline inflation rate”.

“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.35% points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (25.80%),” the NBS said.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year on-year basis) increased in August 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., August 2023).

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.22%, which was 0.06% lower than the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.28%).

“This means that in August 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2024.”

‘YAM, PALM OIL CONTRIBUTED TO DECLINE IN FOOD INFLATION’

The NBS said the food inflation rate in August 2024 was 37.52 percent on a year-on-year basis, showing an 8.18 percent increase compared to the rate recorded in June 2023 (29.34 percent).

“The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items, Bread, Maize Grains, Guinea Corn, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Irish Potatoes, Water Yam, Cassava Tuber, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Palm Oil, Vegetable, etc (Oil & Fats Class) and Ovaltine, Milo, Lipton, etc (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class),” the bureau said.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.37% which shows a 0.10% decrease compared to the rate recorded in July 2024 (2.47%).

“The fall can be attributed to the decline in the rate of increase in the average prices of Tobacco, Tea, Coco, Coffee, Groundnut Oil, Milk, Yam, Irish Potatoes, Water Yam, Cassava Tuber, Palm Oil, Vegetable etc.

“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending August 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 36.99%, which was 11.98% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in August 2023 (25.01%).”

On states analysis, the data body said food inflation rose the highest in Sokoto (46.98 percent), Gombe (43.25 percent), and Yobe (43.21 percent), while Benue (32.33 percent), Rivers (33.01 percent) and Bayelsa (33.36 percent) spent the lowest on food in August on a year-on-year basis.

According to the organisation, Adamawa (5.46 percent), Kebbi (4.48 percent), and Borno (3.88 percent) recorded the highest food inflation on month-on-month basis.

The NBS said states such as Ogun (0.08 percent), Akwa Ibom (0.45 percent) and Sokoto (1.00 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a month-on-month analysis.