Nigeria’s inflation rate hits three-month high at 15.70% amid hike in fuel prices

The consumer price index, which measures the rate of increase in the price of goods and services, rose to 15.70 percent in February 2022, amid soaring fuel prices and scarcity.

With the development, it means that the headline inflation rate slowed down in February when compared to the same month in the previous year.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for February 2022 released on Tuesday.

The rate is 1.63 percent points lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2021 (17.33) percent — but the highest since October 2021 (15.99%).

According to the report, increases were recorded in all classifications of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.

“On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased to 1.63 percent in February 2022, this is 0.16 percent rate higher than the rate recorded in January 2022 (1.47) percent,” the report reads.

“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending February 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.73 percent, showing 0.14 percent point from 16.87 percent recorded in January 2022.

“The urban inflation rate increased to 16.25 percent (year-on-year) in February 2022 from 17.92 percent recorded in February 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 15.18 percent in February 2022 from 16.77 percent in February 2021.”

Last month, Simon Harry, the statistician-general of the federation, had said the fuel crisis would affect the country’s inflation rate.

Since February, the Russia-Ukraine war has caused a hike in global oil prices, while the importation of off-spec petrol caused scarcity across Nigeria.