Nigeria’s inflation decelerates for fourth consecutive month to17.38% in July

Nigeria’s inflation rate slowed down for the fourth consecutive month in July amid a decelerating increase in food prices, latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.

The statistics office said Tuesday that the prices of goods and services, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose by 17.38 per cent. That is lower than 17.75 per cent recorded in June.

This is the year-on-year change, which means that while prices continued to rise in July 2021 over July 2020, the pace of the increase was slower when compared to June 2021 versus June 2020.

The fall between both months was 0.37 per cent or 37 basis points.

“This implies that prices continued to rise in July 2021 but at a slower rate than it did in June 2021,” NBS said.

On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased 0.93 per cent in July, 0.13 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in June.

It said the composite food index rose by 21.03 per cent in July 2021 compared to 21.83 per cent in June 2021.

This implies that food prices continued to rise in July 2021 but at a slower speed than they did in June 2021.

According to the NBS, this rise in the food index in June was caused by increases in the prices of milk, cheese and eggs, coffee, tea and cocoa, vegetables, bread and cereals, soft drinks and meat.

It added that month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 0.86 per cent in July 2021, down by 0.25 per cent points from 1.11 per cent recorded in June 2021.

“The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve months ending July 2021 over the previous twelve-month average was 20.16 per cent, 0.44 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in June 2021 (19.72 per cent),” it said.