Nigeria’s July inflation rate jumped to 19.64 per cent from 18.60 per cent in June, signaling a looming cost of living crisis in Africa’s most populous nation.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the 19.64 per cent inflation represents the country’s highest inflation in 17 years.
The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics, Prince Semiu Adeniran, said this in the Consumer Price Index for July 2022 released by the bureau in Abuja on Monday.
Economists and other stakeholders, in separate interviews with The PUNCH, warned that the rising inflation would worsen hunger in the country, adding that the government risked mass protests similar to the one in Sierra Leon recently.
Giving a breakdown of the report in a statement, Adeniran said the CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.
According to him, it was a core macroeconomic indicator used in the derivation of the inflation rate for policy, planning, and monitoring of an economy.
Adeniran said the report showed that in July 2022, on a year–on–year basis, the headline inflation rate was 19.64 per cent.
“This is 2.27 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021, which was 17.38 per cent,” he said.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate increased in July 2022 when compared to the same month in the previous year of July 2021.”
On a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate was 20.09 per cent, which was 2.08 per cent higher compared to 18.01 per cent recorded in July 2021, the NBS said.
The July 2022 rural inflation rate was 19.22% per cent, compared to the 16.75 per cent recorded in July 2021.
Similarly, the food inflation rate in July 2022 was 22.02 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 0.99 per cent higher 21.03 per cent in the corresponding period of 2021.