Nigeria’s inflation rate rises to 34.6% as prices of yam, rice surge

The National Bureau of Statistics says Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 34.6 percent in November — up from 33.8 percent in October.

In its consumer price index (CPI) report for November published on Monday, NBS said the rate represents an increase of 0.72 percent compared to the October 2024 rate.

“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 6.40% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (28.20%),” the bureau said.

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

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in November 2024 was 2.638%, which was 0.002% points lower than the rate recorded in October 2024 (2.640%).

“This means that in November 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is slightly lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in October 2024.”

FOOD INFLATION INCREASES BY 0.05%

NBS said the food inflation rate in November 2024 was 39.93 percent on a year-on-year basis – an increase of 7 percent higher than the 32.84 percent rate recorded in November 2023.

“The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items; Yam, Water Yam, Coco Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Guinea Corn, Maize Grains, Rice, etc (Bread and Cere-als Class), Beer, Pinto (Tobacco Class), and Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, etc (Oil and Fats Class),” NBS said.

However, on a month-on-month basis, the bureau said the food inflation rate in November 2024 was 2.98 percent, which shows 0.05 percent points increase compared to the 2.94 percent rate recorded in October 2024.

“The rise is attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of Mudfish, Catfish Dried, Dried Fish Sadine, etc (Fish Class), Rice, Yam Flour, Millet Whole grain, Corn flour, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Agric Egg, Powered Milk, Fresh Milk, etc (Milk, cheese and eggs Class) and Dried Beef, Goat Meat, Frozen Chicken, etc (Meat Class),” the bureau said.

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending November 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 38.67%, which was 11.58% points higher compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in November 2023 (27.09%).”

FOOD INFLATION RATE HIGHEST IN BAUCHI, KEBBI

For state analysis, the bureau said food inflation rate rose the highest in Bauchi (46.21 percent), Kebbi (42.41 percent), and Anambra (40.48 percent).

On the other hand, Delta (26.47 percent), Benue (28.98 percent) and Katsina (29.57 percent) spent the lowest on food in November on a year-on-year basis.

According to the bureau, Yobe (5.14 percent), Kebbi (5.10 percent), and Anambra (4.88 percent) recorded the highest food inflation on a month-on-month analysis.

However, the NBS said states such as Adamawa (0.95 percent), Osun (1.12 percent) and Kogi (1.29 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation.