Inflation rate hits 21-month high, now 12.13%

Nigeria’s headline inflation reached its peak in a 21-month period to January 2020 and is now 12.13%, figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday revealed.

The latest figure is 0.15% higher than the one posted in December 2019, when the inflation rate was 11.98%.

The NBS publication titled Consumer Price Index January 2020 states that “on month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.87 per cent in January 2020, this is 0.02 per cent rate higher than the rate recorded in December 2019 (0.85) per cent.”

The headline index is a metric for determining the total inflation in an economy through changes in the cost of living derived from the prices of everyday commodities like food, clothing, transportation and energy.

According to the document, “the urban inflation rate increased by 12.78 per cent (year-on-year) in January 2020 from 12.62 per cent recorded in December 2019, while the rural inflation rate increased by 11.54 per cent in January 2020 from 11.41 per cent in December 2019.

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On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.92 per cent in January 2020, up by 0.02 from 0.90 per cent recorded in December 2019, while the rural index also rose by 0.83 per cent in January 2020, up by 0.01 from the rate recorded in December 2019 (0.82) per cent.”

The composite food index, which measures shifts in food prices, increased from 14.67% last December to 14.85% in January 2020.

The rise in the prices of food items such as bread and cereals, meat, oils and fats, yam, potatoes, fish, yam and other tubers accounted for the upward movement of this index.

Core inflation, which measures all items with the exception of volatile agricultural commodities, leapt to 9.35% in January, up from 9.33% in December 2019.

In this segment, the highest price increases were recorded in hospital services, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing, vehicle spare parts, shoes and footwear, glassware, table and household utensil, hairdressing saloons and personal grooming establishments, garments and passenger transport by air as well as repair and hire of footwear.

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