Nigeria’s inflation hits 22.04% as food prices rise

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 22.04 percent in March from 21.91 percent in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday.

The statistics office said the inflation rate for March was 0.13 percentage points higher than the inflation rate for February 2023.

According to the latest inflation report, the food inflation rate rose to 24.46% in March from 24.35% in the previous month.

Inflation has remained high in Africa’s largest economy, prompting the apex bank to raise interest rates to their highest levels in nearly two decades.

In recent months, Nigerians have experienced an unprecedented cash crunch as a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy. In early March, the Supreme Court ruled that the CBN must extend the use of old notes until December 31 due to the negative impact of the policy.

In an aggressive push to contain the nation’s inflationary pressure, the Central Bank of Nigeria in March raised its benchmark lending rate to 18 percent.

High inflation, slow economic growth and high unemployment are some of the challenges facing Africa’s largest economy as a new president prepares to take power in May.

In Saturday’s inflation report, the NBS said that the main inflation rate was 6.13% higher this March, compared to the rate recorded in March 2022, which was 15.92%.

“This shows that the main inflation rate (year-on-year base) increased in March 2023, compared to the same month of the previous year (that is, March 2022),” said the NBS.

According to the report, the contributions of divisional level elements to the growth of the index are food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.42%), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (3.69%), clothing and footwear (1.69%), transport (1.43%), furniture, household appliances and maintenance (1.11%), among others.

However, month-on-month, the index for all items was 1.86 percent, which is 0.15 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in February 2023 (1.71 percent).

“This means that in March 2023, on average, the overall price level was 0.15 percent higher than in February 2023.

“The change in the average CPI for the twelve months ended March 2023 was 20.37 percent from the average CPI of the previous twelve months, an increase of 3.83 percent from the 16.54 percent recorded in March 2022.” the report said.

Food inflation

The food inflation rate in March 2023 was 24.45 percent year-on-year; that is, compared to the rate recorded in March 2022, 7.25 percentage points higher (17.20 percent).

The bureau said the year-on-year rise in food was driven by increases in the prices of oil and ghee, bread and cereals, potatoes, yams and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and spirits.

“On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in March 2023 was 2.07 percent, which is 0.16 percent higher than the rate recorded in February 2023 (1.90%).

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“The annual average rate of food inflation for the twelve months ended March 2023 was 22.72 percent over the previous twelve months’ average, which is compared to the annual average rate of change recorded in March 2022 (19.21 percent),” he said. .

“Month-on-month, the Core inflation rate was 1.84 percent in March 2023, up 0.78 percent from 1.06 percent in February 2023.

“The twelve-month average annual inflation rate was 17.41% for the twelve months ending March 2023; this was 3.85 percentage points higher than the 13.56 percent recorded in March 2022,” he said.