Inflation Rate Rises By 15.63%, After Eight Months Of Decline

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said for the first time in the last eight months, inflation rate rose to 15.63% in December 2021 from 15.40% in November.

It increased by 1.82%, according to its document titled: “Consumer Price Index December 2021 Report.”

The NBS said: “The consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 15.63 percent (year-on-year) in December 2021.

“This is 0.13 percent points lower than the rate recorded in December 2020 (15.75) percent.”

The document explained that this is showing slowing down in the rate when compared to the corresponding period of 2020.

Increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline index said NBS.

According to the document, urban inflation rate increased by 16.17 percent (year-on-year) in December 2021 from 16.33 percent recorded in December 2020 while the rural inflation rate increased by 15.11 percent in December 2021 from 15.20 percent in December 2020.

On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 1.87 percent in December 2021, up by 0.75 the rate recorded in November 2021 (1.12) percent while the rural index also rose by 1.77 percent in December 2021, up by 0.73 the rate that was recorded in November 2021 (1.04) percent.

NBS said the twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 17.52 percent in December 2021.

This, it said, is lower than the rate reported in November 17.55 (percent), while the corresponding twelve-month (month-on-month) average percentage change for rural index inflation rate in December 2021 stood at 16.40 percent from 16.42 percent in November 2021.

On food, the bureau said: “The composite food sub-index rose by 17.37 percent in December 2021 down by 2.19 percent points when compared to 19.56 percent in December 2020.

“This rise in the food sub-index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food product e.g meat, fish, potatoes, yam and other tuber, soft drinks and fruit.

“On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 2.19 percent in December 2021, up by 1.12 percent points from 1.07 percent recorded in November 2021.”

The document noted that in December 2021, all items inflation on year on year basis was highest in Ebonyi (18.71%); Kogi (18.37%) and Bauchi (17.81%) while Kwara (12.32); Edo (13.46%) and Cross River (13.93%) recorded the slowest rise in headline Year on Year inflation.