Nigeria’s inflation rate rises to 33.95% as food prices continue to surge

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 33.95 percent in May, as prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to surge.

NBS made this known in its consumer price index (CPI) report on Saturday.

In April, the inflation rate stood at 33.69 percent.

“Looking at the movement, the May 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.26% points when compared to the April 2024 headline inflation rate,” NBS said.

“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.54% points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023, which was 22.41%.”

The report also shows that on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in May 2024 was 2.14 percent, which was 0.15 percent lower than the 2.29 percent rate reported in April 2024.

This means that in the month of May, the rate of increase in the average price level is less than the rate of increase in the average price level in April 2024.

An analysis of the top five headline inflation drivers showed food and non-alcoholic beverages led with 17.59 percent.

Following closely are housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 5.68 percent.

Others are clothing and footwear at 2.60 percent, transport at 2.21 percent, with furnishings, household equipment and maintenance completing the list at 1.71 percent.

NBS said on a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate rose to 36.34 percent in May, “which was 12.61% points higher compared to the 23.74% recorded in May 2023”.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate was 2.35% in May 2024, this was 0.32% points lower compared to April 2024 (2.67%),” NBS said.

“The Rural inflation rate in May 2024 was 31.82% on a year-on-year basis; this was 10.63% higher compared to the 21.19% recorded in May 2023.”

‘YAM, SEMOVITA, GARRI DRIVE FOOD INFLATION RATE UP TO 44.66%’

NBS said food inflation rose to 40.66 percent in May, compared to the 24.82 percent reported in the same month last year — indicating an increase of 15.84 percent points.

The bureau said semovita, oatflake, yam flour prepackage, garri, bean, etc (which are under bread and cereals class), Irish potatoes, yam, water yam, etc (under potatoes, yam and other tubers class), contributed to the year-on-year increase in the food inflation rate.

Other contributors are palm oil, vegetable oil, etc (under oil and fat), stockfish, mudfish, crayfish, etc (under fish class), beef head, chicken-live, pork head, and bush meat (under meat class).

NBS also said the month-on-month food inflation rate in May was 2.28 percent, showing a decrease of 0.22 percent compared to the 2.50 percent recorded in April.