Nigeria’s headline inflation rate for October 2023 has increased to 27.33 per cent, from 26.72 per cent in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.
The new inflation rate is just 0.9 short of the 28.2 per cent recorded 18 years ago in August 2005.
The NBS said that the October 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.61 per cent points when compared to the September 2023 headline inflation rate.
The statistics office also noted that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.24 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022, which was (21.09 per cent).
According to the NBS: “This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in October 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., October 2022).
“The increase in the headline index for October 2023 was attributed to the increase in some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level.
“These increases were observed in Food and non-alcoholic Beverages (14.16%), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & other Fuel (4.57%), Clothing & Footwear (2.09%), Transport (1.78%), Furnishings & Household Equipment and maintenance (1.37%), Education (1.08%) and Health (0.82%). Others are Miscellaneous Goods & Services (0.45%), Restaurants & Hotels (0.33%), Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco & Kola (0.30%), Recreation & Culture (0.19%) and Communication (0.19).”
Similarly, it said food sub-index for October 2023 increased to 31.52% on a year-on-year basis, which was 7.80% points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022 (23.72%).
The bureau said the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese and eggs.
“This means that in October 2023, the rate of increase in the average price level is less than the rate of increase in the average price level in September 2023.
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending October 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve-month period was 23.44 per cent, showing a 5.57 per cent increase compared to 17.86 per cent recorded in October 2022.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in October 2023 was 1.91 per cent this was 0.54 per cent lower compared to the rate recorded in September 2023 (2.45 per cent),” the report said.
According to the Bureau, the decline in food inflation on a month-over-month basis was caused by the decline in the rate of increase in the average prices of fruits, oil and fat, coffee, tea and cocoa, bread and cereals.
“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending October 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 26.33 per cent, which was a 6.50 per cent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2022 (19.83 per cent),” the report highlighted.