Inflation rate rises 17-year high to 19.64% in July

Nigeria’s inflation rate in the month of July rose to a 17-year high of 19.64 per cent.

This compares to 18.6per cent recorded in the previous month of June.

The latest inflation data is according to the recently released Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for the month of July, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The last time Nigeria’s inflation was above 19.64 per cent was in September 2005 when it rose to 24.32per cent.  

Notably, the uptick in the inflation rate was driven by increases in the food and core index.

Further breakdown of the report shows that urban inflation rate rose by 2.08 per cent to 20.09 per cent in July from 18.01per cent recorded in July 2021, while the rural inflation rate hit 19.22 per cent from 16.75 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.

Food inflation rose to its highest level in 14 months, standing at 22.02 per cent in July 2022, representing a 1.42 per cent -point increase compared to 20.6 per cent recorded in the previous month.

On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July stood at 2.04 per cent, this is 0.01 per cent lower than 2.05 per cent recorded in the previous month.

According to 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.

Meanwhile, the average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-month period ending July 2022 over the previous twelve-month average was 18.75 per cent, which represents a 1.42 per cent points decline from the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2021 (20.16 per cent).

The ‘’All items less farm produce’’ or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 16.26 per cent in July 2022, compared to 15.75 per cent recorded in the previous month. This also represents the highest core inflation rate since January 2017, when the rate stood at 17.8 per cent.

On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 1.75 per cent in July 2022. This was up by 0.20 per cent when compared to 1.56 per cent recorded in June 2022.

Notably, 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.

Akwa Ibom State recorded the highest inflation rate in the month under review with 22.88 per cent, closely followed by Ebonyi State with 22.51 per cent.

Others include Kogi (22.08 per cent), Bayelsa (21.6%), and Rivers State (21.37 per cent).

In terms of food inflation rate, Kwara State recorded the highest with 29.28 per cent, followed by Akwa Ibom (27.22 per cent). Kogi State recorded 26.08 per cent food inflation rate in July 2022, while Ebonyi, and Ekiti states recorded 25.83 per cent and 24.78 per cent respectively.

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