By Chika Otuchikere
The country’s annual inflation rate has recorded its highest in 25 months, rising for the ninth consecutive months to 12.40 percent in May.
This figure represents the highest inflation rate since April 2018. In April 2020 it was12.34 percent
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) made this known on Wednesday in its Consumer Price Index report for May 2020.
The annual inflation rate reflects the rate of increase in prices of goods and services.
Nigeria’s inflation rate has been on the steady rise, from 11 percent in September last year, initially driven by the effect of the border closure, but now worsened by the impact of restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 across the country.
The NBS in its May 2020 CPI report stated: “The consumer price index, CPI, which measures inflation, increased by 12.40 percent, year-on-year (YoY) in May 2020. This is 0.06 percent points higher than the rate recorded in April 2020 (12.34) percent.
“Increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the headline index.
“On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.17 percent in May 2020. This is 0.15 percent rate higher than the rate recorded in April 2020 (1.02) percent.
“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period, ending May 2020 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 11.79 percent, showing 0.08 percent point from 11.71 percent recorded in April 2020.”
The bureau’s report further showed that food inflation rose by one basis points (bps) to 15.04 percent, YoY from 15.03 percent in April 2020.
Core inflation advanced by 14 bps to 10.12 percent, YoY to 9.98 percent, YoY, while urban inflation rose by two bps to 13.03 percent, YoY. Similarly, the rural index also rose by 1.16 percent in May 2020, up by 0.18 points from 0.9 percent in April 2020.
Across the states, inflation (year-on-year) was highest in Rivers with 14.69 percent while Bauchi (14.91%), Ebonyi, Kogi and Plateau had 13.87 percent inflation.
The least affected states were Kwara (10.58%), Adamawa (11.10%) and Benue (11.13%).
