Inflation rate hits 22.22% in April 2023, says NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday disclosed that  Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 22.22per cent in April, a 0.18per cent point higher than the 22.04per cent recorded in the previous month.

According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report by the NBS, Nigeria’s inflation rate has increased for the fourth consecutive month, maintaining the highest rate in 17 years.

Compared to the corresponding period of 2022, inflation increased by 5.4per cent from 16.82per cent recorded in April 2022.

The country’s inflation rate continues its rise amid multiple interest rate hikes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to tame the rising rate.

The CBN has increased Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) from 11.5 per cent to 18 per cent between May last year and March 2023.

On a month-on-month basis, the All-Items Index in April was 1.91per cent, a 0.05 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in March (1.86 per cent). This means that in April, on average, the general price level was 0.05 per cent higher relative to March.

The food inflation rate in April was 24.61 per cent  on a year-on-year basis, which was 6.24 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2022 (18.37 per cent) and 24.35 per cent recorded in the previous month.

The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fruits, meat, vegetable, and spirits.

The all items less farm produce or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 20.14% in April on a year-on-year basis. This shows that it was up by 5.96 per cent when compared to the 14.18 per cent recorded in April 2022. It is also higher than the 19.86 per cent recorded in March.

The highest increases were recorded in prices of gas, air transport, liquid fuel, vehicle spare parts, fuels, and lubricants for personal transport equipment, medical services, and road transport.

The contributions of items on the divisional level to the increase in the headline index are; food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.51 per cent), housing water, electricity, gas and other fuel (3.72 per cent), clothing and footwear (1.7 per cent), and transport (1.45 per cent).

During the month under review, all items inflation rate (on a year-on-year basis) was highest in Bayelsa (26.14 per cent), Kogi (25.57 per cent), and Rivers (24.95 per cent). On the flip side, Borno (19.06 per cent), Taraba (19.64 per cent) and Sokoto (19.90per cent) recorded the slowest rise in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, however, April 2023 recorded the highest increases in Cross River (3.05%), Bayelsa (2.92 per cent), Rivers (2.62 per cent), while Katsina (0.52 per cent), Jigawa (0.74 per cent) and Osun (0.96 per cent) recorded the slowest rise.