Food Prices Soar As Inflation Drops To 17.75%

Prices of food continued to rise as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation (rate of change in the increase in prices) increased by 17.75 percent in June 2021, signifying a 0.18% drop compared to the 17.93% recorded in May.

According to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the figure implies that prices continued to rise in June but at a slightly slower rise than it did in May.

The percentage change in the average composite CPI for one year ending June when compared to that of the previous one year was 15.93%, representing a 0.43 percentage point increase over 15.50% recorded in May.

On a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 1.06% in June; about 0.05% higher than 1.01% recorded in May.

It said: “Composite food index rose by 21.83% in June compared to 22.28% in May. (This implies that food prices continued to rise in June 2021 but at a slightly slower speed than it did in May 2021.)”

It added that the average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the 12 month period ending June was 19.72%, which is 0.54% lower than the 19.18% obtained in May.

“This rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, milk, cheese and eggs, fish, soft drinks, vegetables, oils and fats and meat.

On a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by1.11% in June, up by 0.06% from 1.05% in May, the bureau noted.