Nigeria’s inflation rate slows to 17.01% in August — fifth consecutive decline in 2021

The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, declined for the fifth consecutive time to 17.01 percent in August from 17.38 recorded in July.

This implies that prices continued to rise in August 2021 — but at a slower pace than it did in the previous month.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated this in its report titled, ‘Consumer Price Index Report for August’, released on Wednesday.

This rate is 0.37 percent points lower than 17.38 per cent recorded last month.

Since March 2021, Nigeria’s inflation rate has been declining monthly as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) projected it may drop to 13 percent this year and a single-digit rate by 2022.

According to the CPI report, month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.02 percent in August 2021, adding that this is a 0.09 percent rate higher than the 0.93 per cent recorded in July 2021.

The report further stated that the composite food index rose by 20.30 percent in August 2021 compared to 21.03 percent in July 2021.

NBS said the rise occurred due to increases in prices of bread and cereals, milk, cheese and egg, oils and fats, potatoes, yam and other tubers, food products, meat and coffee, tea and cocoa.

On a month-on-month basis, it said the food sub-index increased by 1.06 per cent in August 2021, up by 0.20 percent points from the 0.86 percent recorded in July 2021.