Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 32.7 per cent in September, marking a reverse from two consecutive months of decline, where it stood at 32.15% in August.
This uptick was primarily attributed to a rise in Month-on-Month Food Inflation, which escalated to 2.64% from the previous 2.37%.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported these findings in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) Report for September.
According to the Bureau, the headline inflation rate for September 2024 was recorded at 32.70%, in contrast to the August 2024 rate of 32.15%. This indicates an increase of 0.55% in the headline inflation rate from August to September 2024.
On a year-on-year comparison, the headline inflation rate was 5.98 percentage points higher than the rate observed in September 2023, which was 26.72%.
This data illustrates that the headline inflation rate rose on a year-on-year basis in September 2024 when compared to the same month in the previous year, September 2023.
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in September 2024 was 2.52%, which was 0.30% higher than the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.22%).
“This means that in September 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in August 2024,” the NBS noted.
The NBS further said: “The Food inflation rate in September 2024 was 37.77% on a year-on-year basis, 7.13% points higher than the rate recorded in September 2023 (30.64%).
“The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items: Guinea Corn, Rice, Maize, Grains, Beans, etc. (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Water Yam, Cassava Tuber, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Beer (Local and Foreign) (Tobacco Class), Lipton, Milo, Bournvita, etc.
“(Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class) and Vegetable Oil, Palm Oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class).
“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in September 2024 was 2.64% which shows a 0.27% increase compared to the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.37%).
“The rise can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of Beer (Local and Foreign) (Tobacco Class), Vegetable Oil, Groundnut Oil, Palm Oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class), Beef, Gizzard, Dried Beef, etc (Meat Class), Lipton, Milo, Bournvita, etc (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class) and Milk, Egg etc (Milk,
cheese and Eggs Class).
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending September 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 37.53%, which was an 11.88% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in September 2023 (25.65%).”