Rising Food, Commodity Prices Drive Inflation to 19.64%

•Severe in Kwara, Akwa Ibom, Kogi others

James Emejo

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services increased to 19.64 per cent in July, compared to the 18.60 per cent it was the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed yesterday.

However, on a year-on-year comparison, the CPI stood at 17.38 per cent in the corresponding month of 2021.

The NBS attributed the 2.27 per cent rise in the headline index to the uptick in the food and core indexes.

Food inflation rose by 0.99 per cent to 22.02 per cent year-on-year in July compared to 21.03 per cent in 2021.

According to the CPI report for July which was posted on the statistical agency’s website, 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.

On a month-on-month basis, food inflation declined by 0.01 per cent to 2.04 per cent in July, which was an insignificant reduction compared to 2.05 per cent.

The NBS however attributed the decline to a reduction in the prices of some food items namely tubers, maize, garri, and vegetables.

The average annual rate of food inflation for the 12-month period ending July 2022, over the previous 12-month average was 18.75 per cent, which was a 1.42 per cent decline from the 20.16 per cent average annual rate of change recorded in July 2021.

Similarly, the “All items less farm produce’’ or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce increased by 2.54 per cent to 16.26 per cent year-on-year compared to 13.72 per cent in 2021.

On a month-on-month basis, core inflation rose by 0.20 per cent to 1.75 per cent in July compared to 1.56 per cent recorded in June.

According to the statistical agency, the highest increases in core inflation were recorded in prices of gas, liquid fuel, solid fuel, passenger transport by road, air, garments, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing.

Meanwhile, year-on-year, food inflation was most severe in Kwara (29.28 per cent), Akwa Ibom (27.22 per cent), and Kogi (26.08 per cent), while Kaduna (17.16 per cent), Jigawa (17.46 per cent) and Anambra (19.25 per cent) recorded the slowest rise.

On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was highest in Kwara (3.90 per cent), Delta (3.61 per cent), and Benue (2.94 per cent), while Taraba (0.14 per cent), Gombe (0.94 per cent), and Niger (1.13 per cent) recorded the slowest rise.

On the other hand, core inflation year-on-year basis was highest in Akwa Ibom (22.88 per cent), Ebonyi (22.51 per cent), 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 the headline index.