Higher Food, Commodity Prices Push Inflation to 21.82%

•Severe in Lagos, Bauchi, Ondo, others

James Emejo in Abuja

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and commodities increased by 0.47 per cent to 21.82 per cent in January, compared to 21.34 percent the preceding month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed yesterday.

The NBS however, explained that year-on-year, the headline index was 6.22 per cent higher compared to 15.60 per cent in January 2022.

According to the CPI report for January which was released by the statistical agency, food inflation year-on-year rose to 24.32 per cent in January 2023, representing 7.19 per cent increase compared to 17.13 per cent in January 2022.

The rise in food inflation was attributed to increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, pota¬toes, yam and other tubers, fish, vegetable, fruits, meat, and food products.

Month-on-month, however, the food index stood at 2.08 per cent in January, which was 0.20 per cent higher than the 1.89 per cent in December.

Core inflation, which excluded prices of volatile agricultural produce rose by 5.29 per cent 19.16 per cent year-on-year in January 2023, compared to 13.87 per cent in 2022.

Month-on-month, the core index rose by 0.49 per cent 1.82 per cent in January compared to 1.33 per cent in December.

The NBS blamed the rise in core inflation on increases in prices of gas, liquid fuel, pas¬senger transport by air, vehicles spare parts, fuels, and lubricants for personal transport equipment, solid fuel, among others.

Notably, the highest contributors to the headline index include bread and cereal (21.67 per per cent), actual and imputed rent (7.74 per cent), potatoes, yam and tuber (6.06 per cent), vegetable (5.44 per cent), and meat (4.78 per cent).

Urban inflation year-on-year increased to 22.55 per cent in January compared to 16.17 per cent 2022.

Month-on-month, the urban index stood at 1.98 per cent in January com¬pared to 1.80 per cent in December.

On the other hand, the rural inflation also rose to 21.13 per cent year-on-year compared to the 15.06 per cent in 2022.

On a month-on-month ba¬sis, the rural index rose to 1.77 per cent in the period under review compared to 1.63 per cent in De¬cember.

On states level, general inflation year-on-year was highest in Bauchi (24.79 per cent), Ondo (24.54 per cent), and Anambra (24.51 per cent), while Jigawa (19.09 per cent), Borno (19.62 per cent) and Sokoto (19.90 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in the headline index.

Month-on-month, however, the highest increases were recorded in Lagos (2.91 per cent), Taraba (2.84 per cent), Ondo (2.68 per cent), while Yobe (0.54 per cent), Jigawa (0.73 per cent) and Oyo (0.87 per cent) record¬ed the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.

Food Inflation year-on-year was highest in Kwara (29.03 per cent), La¬gos (27.67 per cent), and Ondo (27.38 per cent), while Jigawa (19.22 per cent), Sokoto (20.80 per cent) and Yobe (21.32 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in the index.

On a month-on-month basis, however, food inflation was highest in Lagos (3.67 per cent), Ogun (3.54 per cent), and Ekiti (3.32 per cent), while Yobe (-0.50 per cent), Jigawa (0.18 per cent) and Kebbi (0.92 per cent) recorded the slowest rise.