Nigeria’s inflation has risen to a new 29-year high of 33.2 per cent in March 2024 from the 31.70% percent record in the previous month.
This is according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday, April 15, 2024.
The last time Nigeria’s annual inflation rate soared to the current levels was in 1996.
Rising inflation and slow growth have caused the number of impoverished Nigerians to rise from 89.8 million at the beginning of 2023 to 104 million, according to the World Bank’s most recent Nigeria Development Update report.
This development comes despite the appreciation of the naira against the dollar.
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The local currency exchanged below N1000 at some segments of the parallel market as of late Sunday which gave live to Goldman Sachs projection that naira will soon be exchange below N1000.
The American investment bank’s economists stated that the Naira’s bullish momentum on the foreign exchange market will likely cause it to trade for less than N1,000 per US dollar in the coming months.
However, the bullish is yet to be reflected in markets across Nigeria.
It is expected that the Central Bank of Nigeria will increase the interest rate for the third time this year to curb the rising inflation.