Rising Food, Commodity Prices Push Inflation to 22.41%
Highest in Ondo, Kogi, Rivers, others
James Emejo in Abuja
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the rate of change in prices of commodities increased to 22.41 per cent in May, compared to 22.22 per cent recorded the preceding month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated yesterday.
The headline rate showed an increase of 0.19 per cent when compared to the preceding month, the Statistician-General of the Federation/Chief Executive, NBS, Mr. Semiu Adeniran explained.
Year-on-year, the headline inflation stood at 4.70 per cent higher compared to 17.71 per cent recorded in May 2022.
Similarly, headline inflation month on month rose to 1.94 per cent, which was 0.03 per cent higher than 1.91 per cent in April.
Food inflation increased to 24.82 per cent year on year in which was 5.33 per cent higher compared to 1950 per cent May 2022.
The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was attributed to increases in prices of oil and fat, yam and other tubers, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, fruits, meat, vegetable, and spirits.
Month-on-month, however, the food index stood at 2.19 per cent, which was 0.06 per cent higher compared to 2.13 per cent in April.
On the other hand, all items less farm produce inflation otherwise known as core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce increased to 20.06 per cent year on year in May, representing an increase of 5.16 per cent when compared to 14.90 per cent in May 2022.
According to Adeniran, the core index was influenced by highest increases in prices of gas, passenger transport by air, liquid fuel, vehicle spare parts, fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment, medical services, passenger transport by road among others.
Month-on-month, core inflation rose to 1.81 per cent in May compared to 1.46 per cent in April.
According to the statistical agency, inflationary pressures were mainly from food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.61 per cent), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel (3.75 per cent), clothing and footwear (1.71 per cent), Transport (1.46 per cent), furnishings and household equipment & maintenance (1.13 per cent), education (0.88 per cent) and health (0.67 per cent).
Others include miscellaneous goods and services (0.37 per cent), restaurants and hotels (0.27 per cent), alcoholic beverages, tobacco and kola (0.24 per cent) while recreation and culture increased by 0.15 per cent and communication by 0.15 per cent.
Moreover, urban inflation rose year-on-year to 23.74 per cent, representing an increase of 5.50 per cent compared to the 18.24 per cent in May 2022 while month-on-month, the index rose to 2.09 per cent in May compared to 2.05 per cent in April.
In the same vein, rural inflation rose to 21.19 per cent year-on-year in May, representing 3.98 per cent over 17.21 per cent in May 2022. Month-on-month, the rural index increased to 1.80 per cent from 1.78 per cent in the preceding month.
At state levels, year-on-year, prices were highest in Ondo (25.84 per cent), Kogi (25.70per cent), Rivers (25.02 per cent), while Taraba (19.55 per cent), Sokoto (19.56per cent) and Plateau (19.89 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in headline inflation.
Month-on-month, inflation recorded highest increases in Osun (3.05 per cent), Ebonyi (3.02 per cent), Kogi (2.81 per cent), while Ogun (0.64per cent), Nasarawa (0.89 per cent) and Imo (0.94 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in the headline index.
Also, the states’ profile indicated that food inflation year-on-year was highest in Ondo (30.26 per cent), Kogi (29.83 per cent) and Kwara (29.52 per cent), while Sokoto (18.89 per cent), Taraba (21.30 per cent) and Kano (21.33 per cent) recorded the slowest rise.
On a month-on-month basis, however, food inflation was highest in River (3.74 per cent), Osun (3.44 per cent) and Kogi (3.38 per cent), while Sokoto (0.45 per cent), Kano (0.61 per cent) and Nasarawa (0.85 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in the sub index.
