Nigeria’s inflation rate increases to 26.7% amid rising food prices

October 16, 2023 12:43 pm

The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 26.72 percent in September 2023 — up from 25.80 percent in the previous month.

This was disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its CPI report for September, released on Monday.

The latest figure marks the ninth consecutive rise in the country’s inflation rate this year.

In September, the NBS said, the headline inflation rate increased by 0.92 percent points when compared with the August figure.

“Looking at the movement, the September 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.92% points when compared to the August 2023 headline inflation rate,” the report reads.

“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.94% points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2022, which was 20.77%.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in September 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., September 2022).”

The bureau said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in September 2023 was 2.10 percentage points higher. This is 1.08 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in August 2023 (3.18 percent).

This means that in September 2023, the rate of increase in the average price level was less than the rate of increase in the average price level in August 2023.

According to the report, the food inflation rate in September 2023 was 30.64 percent on a year-on-year basis.

This, the data body said, was 7.30 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2022 (23.34 percent).

The bureau said the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables, and milk, cheese, and eggs.

“In September 2023, Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (39.37%), Rivers (35.95%), and Lagos (35.66%),” the report reads.

“Jigawa (23.41%), Borno (25.29%) and Sokoto (25.38%) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis.”