Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 21.82% amid Naira scarcity

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Nigeria’s inflation rate increased from 21.34 percent in December 2022 to 21.82 percent in January 2023, owing to the naira scarcity.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, the January 2023 inflation rate increased by 0.47% points when compared to the December 2022 inflation rate.

“However, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.22% points higher compared to the rate recorded in January 2022, which was 15.60%,” the report read.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in the month of January 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., January 2022).

“The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are: Bread and Cereal (21.67%), Actual and Imputed Rent (7.74%), Potatoes, Yam and Tuber (6.06%), Vegetable (5.44%), and Meat (4.78%).

“On a month-on-month basis, the percentage change in the All-Items Index in January 2023 was 1.87%, which was 0.15% points higher than the rate recorded in December 2022 (1.71%).

“This means that in the month of January 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.15% higher relative to December 2022.”

The NBS said the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending January 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 19.36%, showing a 2.49% increase compared to 16.87% recorded in January 2022.