Inflation Drops, Now 14.33%

Annual inflation in Nigeria stood at 14.33 per cent in February, slowing for the 13th month in a row.

It is driven by a decline in the pace of food price increases, the statistics office said on Wednesday.

The food price index showed inflation at 17.59 per cent in February, compared with 18.92 per cent in January. Core inflation was 15.13 per cent last month.

NBS boss Yemi Kale said in January he expects inflation to fall faster this year compared with 2017, but that spending ahead of 2019 presidential elections could stoke prices.

Food price inflation has remained in high double digits over the last year.

Kale has said the country is in a harvest period and output is increasing, which would help lower food prices, but household consumption remains fragile after the 2016 recession.

A stand-off that has affected Nigeria’s ability to set interest rates may also be coming to an end, with the possibility of a rate-setting meeting as early as next Tuesday.

Nigeria’s upper house of parliament has said it will start screening new members of the Central Bank’s interest rate committee after it held up some of President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees in a political spat.

The bank has kept its main interest rate at 14 per cent for over a year now as it battles inflation and seeks to attract foreign investors to support the naira currency.

In a tweet by segun Andrews on Wednesday, he said Nigerians are happy with the development.

SEGUN @SegunAndrews said: “It’s been 13 months after Nigeria recorded her first disinflation, this was after several months of persistent rise in the inflation rates.

Today, the country recorded 13th consecutive drop in the economic index.”

“Nigeria is doing well in taming inflation as data shows 14.33 percent,” Oludare Mayowa said.

Proshare Nigeria advised that the policy makers and economic managers in the country need to pay urgent attention to the declining trend in the PMI in order to nip it in the bud.