19.64% inflaion rate highest-ever in 17 years, says NBS

NIGERIA’S inflation rate rose from 18.6% to 19.64% within a month, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

The Bureau attributed the 17-year all-time high 1.82% jump – the highest in 17 years – to rising food prices and other Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Also listed as contributors were the increased in costs of gas and liquid/solid fuel; hike in road/air transport fares; garments, cleaning, repair and clothing.

But the World Bank blamed the upward swing on government’s lackadaisical attitude to address the trend. A former Director-General at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Dr. Muda Yusuf described the situation as worrisome.

The latest inflation data is captured in the July CPI Report released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The Bureau said: “This is 2.27 per cent points higher when compared with the rate recorded in July 2021, which was 17.38 per cent.

According to the report, increases were recorded in all Classifications of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) functions and all-items basis.

It put the urban inflation rate on a year-on-year basis in July at 20.09 per cent (2.08 per cent higher, compared with the 18.01 per cent recorded in July last year).

The report noted that on a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.82 per cent last month, representing 0.0002 per cent decline, compared with the 1.82 per cent recorded in the previous month.