Nigeria’s inflation hits 17-year high of 19.64%

Nigeria’s inflation has reached a seventeen-year high of 19.64 per cent defying efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to curb soaring prices.

Headline Inflation rose to 19.64 per cent in July, from 17.38 per cent in July 2021. In June, inflation was 18.60 per cent.

“The highest increases were recorded in prices of gas, liquid fuel, solid fuel, passenger

transport by road, passenger transport by air, garments, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing,” the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in its inflation report for July.

Food inflation accelerated to 22.02% from 20.6% recorded in June 2022. According to the NBS, the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, oil, and fat.

n the same vein, the core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce increased to 16.26% in the month of July 2022, from 15.75% recorded in the previous month.

The highest increases were recorded in prices of Gas, Liquid fuel, Solid fuel, Passenger transport by road, Passenger transport by Air, Garments, Cleaning, Repair and Hire of clothing.

This is coming despite CBN’s aggressive inflationary policy which led to the hike in monetary policy rate from 13 per cent to 14 per cent in July 2022.

The CBN made the first hike of MPR to 13 per cent in May due to inflationary pressures.

Urban inflation rate was 20.09 per cent in July compared to 18.01 per cent recorded in July 2021.

Rural inflation in July 2022 was 19.22 per cent on a year-on-year basis compared to the 16.75 per cent recorded in July 2021.

In terms of states, inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Akwa Ibom (22.88 per cent), Ebonyi (22.51 per cent) and Kogi (22.08 per cent), while Jigawa (16.62 per cent), Kaduna (17.04 per cent) and Borno (18.04 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.

(Nairametrics & NewsTimes)