By Teddy Nwanunobi
National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, yesterday revealed that Nigeria’s inflation rate declined to 33.40% in July.
The figure, which is below the 34.19% reported in June, is the first decline in 19 months.
In the consumer price index, CPI, — which measures the rate of change in the prices of goods and services, published yesterday, NBS said the inflation rate decreased by 0.8%.
The Bureau said, the headline inflation rate in July showed “0.3% points lower when compared to the June 2024 headline inflation rate”.
“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.32% points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2023, which was 24.08%.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate ,year-on-year basis, increased in July 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year , i.e., July 2023.
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2024 was 2.28%, which was 0.03% lower than the rate recorded in June 2024 2.31%. This means that in July 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in June 2024″, NBS said.
NBS also said the food inflation rate in July dropped to 39.53%, compared to 40.87% in June.
However, on a year-on-year basis, the July figure was 12.55% points higher compared to the 26.98% inflation rate recorded in July 2023.
“The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items Semovita, Yam Flour (Prepacked), Wheat Flour (Prepacked), etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Irish Potatoes, Water Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Groundnut Oil, Palm Oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class) and Milo, Bournvita, Ovaltine (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class), etc.
“On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July 2024 was 2.47% which shows a 0.08% decrease compared to the rate recorded in June 2024 ,2.55%”, it stated.
The Bureau said the fall can be attributed to the decline in the rate of increase in the average prices of tin milk, baby powdered milk, etc, fish, date palm fruit ,debenu, watermelon, etc garri, akpu ,fufu, etc.
Others are: exercise books, textbooks, turkey meat, and minced pork.
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending June 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 36.36%, an 11.90% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2023 ,24.46%”, the Bureau added.
The report also said Sokoto ,46.26%, Jigawa ,46.05%, and Enugu ,44.06%, states spent more on food in June, while Adamawa ,33.48%, Bauchi ,35.10%, and Benue ,36.41%, recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.
On the other hand, Borno ,5.07%, Sokoto ,4.99%, and Enugu ,4.17%, states had the highest food inflation month-on-month.
NBS said Kwara ,0.51%, Taraba,0.56%, and Ondo, 0.68, states recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a month-on-month basis.
