By David Akinmola
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report yesterday, said that Nigeria’s inflation rate surged to 20.09 per cent in October 2022, representing a 0.32 per cent increase from 20.77 per cent in September.
According to the Bureau, food inflation in October 2022 increased to 23.72 per cent from 18.34 per cent in the corresponding month last year.
“In October 2022, on a year–on–year basis, the headline inflation rate was 21.09 per cent. This was 5.09 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2021, which was 15.99 per cent.
This shows that the general price level for the headline inflation rate increased in October 2022, compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., October 2021) by 5.09 per cent.
“On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate for October 2022, was 1.24 per cent, this was 0.11 per cent lower than the rate recorded in September 2022 (1.36 per cent). This means that in October 2022, the general price level for the headline inflation rate (month–on–month basis) declined by 0.11 per cent.
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending October 2022, over the average for the previous twelve months period was 17.86 per cent, showing a 0.91 per cent increase compared to the 16.96 per cent recorded in October 2021″.
The report listed the likely factors for the increase on a year-on-year basis as: “Disruption in the supply of food products, increase in the cost of importation due to the persistent currency depreciation and a general rise in the price of production e.g increase in energy cost”.
The Bureau stated that in October 2022, the inflation rate on all items on a year-on-year basis was extremely high in Kogi (25.15 per cent), Bauchi (23.45 per cent), Ondo (23.45 per cent), while Plateau (19.02 per cent), Borno (19.31 per cent) and Nasarawa (19.39 per cent) scored the slowest rise in headline Year-on-Year inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, October 2022, recorded the highest increases in Abuja (3.18 per cent), Kebbi (2.80 per cent), Sokoto (2.57 per cent), while Kwara (-0.14 per cent), Kogi (0.06 per cent) and Oyo (0.30 per cent) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.
The food inflation rate in October 2022 was 23.72 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 5.39 per cent higher than the rate recorded in October 2021 (18.34 per cent).
NBS attributed the rise in food inflation to an increase in the price of cereals and bread, potatoes, yams, and other food items.
In October month-on-month basis, the food inflation stood at 1.23 per cent, a 0.21 per cent decline compared to the rate recorded in September 2022 (1.43 per cent). This decline was attributed to decreased prices of selected foods such as beans, tubers, palm oil and vegetables.
