Increasing food prices push inflation rate to 11.37% in April, NBS says

The annual inflation rate in Nigeria increased to 11.37 percent in April 2019 from 11.25 percent in the prior month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.

According to the report released on Wednesday, Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation, increased to 11.37 percent in April 2019 from 11.25 percent in the prior month.

This is the highest inflation rate since January, in the face of increase in food prices.

Year-on-year prices rose faster mostly for food (13.70 percent vs 13.45 percent in March) and housing & utilities (7.25 percent vs 7.19 percent).

Read also: ECONOMY: The road ahead is rough, really rough, Emefiele tells Senate

On the other hand, inflation softened for clothing & footwear (9.95 percent vs 10 percent); transport (9.24 percent vs 9.39 percent); furnishings (9.43 percent vs 9.49 percent); education (9.32 percent vs 9.46 percent); health (9.56 percent vs 9.63 percent); miscellaneous goods & services (8.85 percent vs 9.06 percent); restaurants & hotels (8.66 percent vs 8.82 percent) and recreation & culture (8.42 percent vs 8.56 percent).

Meanwhile, cost was almost the same for alcoholic beverages, tobacco & kola (10.33 percent vs 10.30 percent).

Annual core inflation, which excludes price of volatile agricultural products, fell to 9.28 percent in April from 9.46 percent in March, hitting its lowest level since January 2016.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices inched up 0.94 percent, following a 0.79 percent rise in the previous month. It is the highest monthly inflation since last August.

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