Nigerian consumers are in for continuous hardship as rising prices of food items continues with new inflation rate at 19.64 percent in July, the highest since September 2005, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, surged 17-year high from 18.60 percent in the previous month.
The increase was recorded against the backdrop of food inflation, which rose to 22.02 percent in July from 20.60 percent in June.
The NBS in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for July 2022 said that on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 percent, which was 0.01 percent higher than the rate recorded in June 2022 (1.816 percent).
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending July 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.75%, showing a 0.46% increase compared to 16.30% recorded in July 2021,” the report said.
Food Inflation
On a month-on-month basis, the report said food inflation rate in July was 2.04%, 0.01 percent insignificant decline compared to the rate recorded in June 2022 (2.05 percent).
“This decline is attributed to a reduction in the prices of some food items like tubers, maize, garri, and vegetables,” the report said.
On a state-by-state basis, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and Kogi states witnessed the highest prices while Jigawa, Kano and Borno recorded the slowest rise in inflation.
“In July 2022, all items’ inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Akwa Ibom (22.88%), Ebonyi (22.51%), Kogi (22.08%), while Jigawa (16.62%), Kaduna (17.04%) and Borno (18.04%) recorded the slowest rise in headline Year-on-Year inflation,” the report said.
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“However, on a month-on-month basis, July 2022 recorded the highest increases in Adamawa (2.87%), Abuja (2.84%), Oyo (2.77%), while Bauchi (0.82%), Kano (0.83%) and Niger (1.03%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.”
Meanwhile, the ‘’All items less farm produce’’ or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 16.26% in July 2022, compared to 15.75% recorded in the previous month. On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 1.75% in July 2022, up by 0.20% when compared to 1.56% recorded in June 2022.
The report said the highest increases were recorded in prices of gas, liquid fuel, solid fuel, passenger transport by road and air, garments, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing.
