Nigeria’s Inflation Hits 18.17%, Highest In Four Years

The inflation rate in Nigeria has increased to 18.17 percent in March 2021. This is the highest level recorded since January 2017.

According to the Consumer Price Index of March 2020 published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the prices of food have also gone up to 21.79 percent recorded in February to 22.95 percent in March. The food Inflation is the highest point recorded since the 2009 data series.

“This rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Potatoes, yam and other tubers, Meat, Vegetable, Fish, Oils and fats and fruits,” NBS explains.

According to the report, increases were recorded in the 12 Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose  (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.

The COICOP includes food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic, and beverages; tobacco, and kola; clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, and gas; furnishings and household equipment. Others are health, transport, communication, recreation and culture, education, restaurants and hotels, miscellaneous goods and services.

In March 2021, all-items inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi – 24.51 per cent; Bauchi – 22.24 per cent and Sokoto – 20.70 percent, while Imo – 16.08 per cent; Kwara – 15.34 per cent, and Cross River – 14.45 percent recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.

For food inflation, Kogi – 29.71 percent; Sokoto – 27.02 percent, and Ebonyi – 26.59 percent recorded the highest, while Abuja – 20.1 percent; Kebbi – 19.98 percent, and Bauchi – 18.61 percent recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.

Kehinde Ogunyale

Reporting on the data-driven economy, and investigations.

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