Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to its highest in 17 years rising from 18.06% recorded in June to 19.64% in July.
This was contained in the consumer price index (CPI) report for July 2022 by the National Bureau of Statistics.
On a month-on-month basis, NBS said the headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 %, which was 0.001% higher than the rate recorded in June 2022 (1.816 %).
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending July 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.75%, showing a 0.46% increase compared to 16.30% recorded in July 2021,” the report reads.
Further breakdown of the report shows that the urban inflation rate rose by 2.08% to 20.09% in July 2022 from 18.01% recorded in July 2021, while the rural inflation rate hit 19.22% from 16.75% recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.
The closely watched indicator to its highest level in 14 months, food inflation stood at 22.02% in July 2022, representing a 1.42%-point increase compared to 20.6% recorded in the previous month. On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July stood at 2.04%, this is 0.01% lower than 2.05% recorded in the previous month.
According to the NBS, the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, oil, and fat.
Meanwhile, the average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-month period ending July 2022 over the previous twelve-month average was 18.75%, which represents a 1.42% points decline from the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2021 (20.16%).
The ‘’All items less farm produce’’ or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 16.26% in July 2022, compared to 15.75% recorded in the previous month. This also represents the highest core inflation rate since January 2017, when the rate stood at 17.8%.
On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 1.75% in July 2022. This was up by 0.20% when compared to 1.56% recorded in June 2022.
Notably, the highest increases were recorded in prices of Gas, Liquid fuel, Solid fuel, Passenger transport by road, Passenger transport by Air, Garments, Cleaning, Repair and Hire of clothing.
