Inflation climbs to 25-month high of 12.56%

Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation using the weighted average price of a basket of a number of consumer essentials, jumped 0.16% higher to 12.56% in June, its highest point in 25 months, the statistics office said Friday.

Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation using the weighted average price of a basket of staples and other consumer essentials, jumped 0.16% higher to 12.56% in June, its highest point in more than two years, the statistics office said Friday.

June’s inflation figure rose from previous month’s 12.40%, driven by the rising costs of food and healthcare.

“This rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and Cereals, Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, Fruits, Oils and Fats, Meat, Fish and Vegetables.

Read also: Inflation to average 12.2% this year —PwC

“On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.48 per cent in June 2020, up by 0.06 per cent points from 1.42 per cent recorded in May 2020,” the National Bureau of Statistics said in its Consumer Price Index June 2020 report.

The index for food demonstrated an uptick from 15.04% in May to 15.18% in June.

The larger part of the country’s 34,000 coronavirus cases are found in urban centres, where the impact of price spikes is most palpable, particularly for drug and food imports.

Meanwhile, core inflation, which gauges the change in the costs of all goods and services but the prices of volatile agricultural produce inched up to 10.13 per cent, 0.01 per cent higher than that of May.

“The highest increases were recorded in prices of Medical services, Hospital services, Passenger transport by road, Pharmaceutical products, Motor cars, Paramedical services, Maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment, Bicycles, Motorcycles, Vehicle spare parts and Other services in respect of personal transport equipment,” the NBS said.

Government said on Wednesday at the approval of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper for 2021-2023 it was targeting 11.9 per cent inflation rate within the period.

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