Nigeria’s inflation rate rises to 34.6% in November 2024, highest in 28 years

This is according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This shows that the headline inflation rose 0.72% from 33.88% in October.

The last time Nigeria’s inflation rate was this high was 28 years ago in March 1996 when it rose to 41.9%.

Nigeria has been experiencing galloping inflation throughout 2024 rising from 28.9% at the end of 2023 to 34.6%.

This is despite several efforts by the central bank to combat inflation, especially via its hawkish monetary policy that has seen its benchmark rate rise from 18.75% at the end of 2023 to 27.5% this year

According to the NBS, Nigeria recorded an inflation rate of 34.6% the highest so far in 2024 as Nigerians faced higher fuel and food prices.

All sub-indexes experienced rising inflation except for Health, Communication, recreation, and culture which all experienced decline year on year.

The Urban inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was 37.10% in November, marking a 6.88% rise from the previous year. Urban inflation increased by 0.02% to 2.77% on a month-on-month basis.

The Food inflation rate in November 2024 rose by 7.08% to 39.93% from 32.84% in November 2023, on a year-on-year basis.

The year-on-year rise in Food inflation was caused by increases in the prices of various food items such as Yam, potatoes, Maize Grains, Rice, Palm Oil, and Vegetable Oil, among others.

On a month-on-month basis, Yobe, Kano, and Kebbi states saw the highest food inflation rates in November 2024, at 6.52%, 5.95%, and 5.68%, respectively.

Meanwhile, Borno, Adamawa, and Kogi states experienced the slowest month-on-month food inflation rates, at 0.76%, 0.90%, and 1.21%, respectively.

The core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy stood at 28.75% in November 2024 on a year-on-year basis, rising by 6.36% from 22.38% recorded in November 2023.

Note: A previous version of this article indicated that this was the highest inflation in 26 years. This has now been corrected to 28 years.