Nigeria’s inflation accelerates to 8 months high

Nigeria’s inflation rate rose at a faster pace to 16.82% in April 2022, underpinned by the hike in the prices of energy and food prices. April inflation rate is the highest the country has recorded in the last eight months since August 2021.

This is according to the recently released Consumer Price Index report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The consumer price index, which measures the rate of inflation rose by 16.82% year-on-year in April 2022, which is 0.9% points higher than the 15.92% recorded in the previous month (March 2022). On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.76% in April 2022, compared to a 1.74% increase recorded in the previous month.

Similarly, the urban inflation rate increased to 17.35% (year-on-year) in April 2022 from 18.68% recorded in April 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 16.32% in April 2022 from 17.57% in April 2021.

Food inflation
Food inflation rose to 18.37% in the review month, an increase compared to the 17.2% recorded in the preceding month. This rise in the food index was caused by increases in the prices of Bread and cereals, Food products, Potatoes, yam, and other tubers, Wine, Fish, Meat, and Oils.

On a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased to 2% in April 2022, up by 0.01% points from 1.99% recorded in March 2022. Also, the average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending April 2022 over the previous twelve-month average is 18.88%, 0.34% points from the average annual rate of change recorded in March 2022 (19.21) per cent.

Core inflation
In the same vein, the core inflation rate rose to 14.18% in April 2022 from 13.91% recorded in the previous month. The rise in the core index was attributed to the increase in the prices of gas, liquid fuel, Cleaning, repair and hire of clothing, Clothing materials, other articles of clothing, and clothing accessories.

The average 12-month annual rate of change of the index was 13.68% for the twelve-month period ending April 2022; this is 0.12% points higher than the 13.56% recorded as of the previous month.

States with the highest inflation rate
In April 2022, all items inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Bauchi (18.93%), Ebonyi (18.88%), and Akwa Ibom (18.80%), while Sokoto (14.65%), Kwara (15.33%) and Kaduna (15.69%) recorded the slowest rise in headline Year on Year inflation.

In terms of food inflation, Kogi recorded the highest year-on-year increase in the food index with 22.79% in April 2022, Kwara State followed with 21.56%, and Ebonyi (21.45%), while Sokoto (14.85%), Kaduna (15.55%) and Anambra (16.68%) recorded the slowest rise in year-on-year food inflation. (Nairametrics)