Connect with us

News

As expected, inflation jumps to 15.7% in February amid fuel scarcity

Published

on

NBS says inflation rate jumped to 11.44% in December

Nigeria’s inflation rate took a swift turn in February rising to 15.7% from 15.6% recorded in the previous month.

This represents a 0.1 percentage point increase over the rate recorded in January 2022, and confirms the impact of the fuel shortage that has gripped the country since February.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in it latest consumer price index report released on Tuesday.

On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased to 1.63% in February 2022, which is 0.16% rate higher than the rate recorded in January 2022 (1.47%).

The urban inflation rate increased to 16.25% (year-on-year) in February 2022 from 17.92% recorded in February 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 15.18 per-cent in February 2022 from 16.77 percent in February 2021.

READ ALSO: Nigerians will never forget Buhari due to infrastructural development —Adesina

Core inflation also rose to its highest level in over 4 years at 14.01%, while food inflation dropped to 17.11% in the review period from 17.13% recorded in January 2022.

The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending February 2022 over the previous twelve-month average was 19.69%, which is 0.4% lower than the average annual rate of change recorded in January 2022 (20.09$).

The ‘’All items less farm produce’’ or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 14.01% in February 2022, up by 0.14% when compared to 13.87% recorded in January 2022.

This is the highest core inflation rate in over 4 years, since April 2017, largely attributed to the significant increase in price of petroleum product due to the scarcity.

According to the report, the highest increases were recorded in prices of gas, liquid fuel, wine, tobacco, spirit, narcotics, solid fuels, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing, garments, shoes and other foot wear, other services in respect of personal transport equipment, clothing materials, other articles of clothing and clothing accessories, and other services.

State inflation

In February 2022, all items inflation on year-on-year basis was highest in Cross River (18.84%), Gombe (17.70%) and Abuja (17.68%), while Kwara (13.82%), Sokoto (13.93%) and Anambra (14.43%) recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.

On the other hand, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (21.04%), Enu-gu (20.31%) and Kwara (20.03%), while Sokoto (13.89%), Anambra (14.18%) and Bauchi (14.43%) recorded the slowest rise in year-on-year food inflation.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now