Nigeria’s inflation rate in the month of July 2022 rose to a 17-year high of 19.64% compared to 18.6% recorded in the previous month of June.
National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) latest inflation data released on Monday confirmed the jump.
Nigeria’s inflation, especially the food items component has been on upward trend, a move which saw the monetary policy authority, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hiking the anchor lending rate in an attempt to curb it without success.
NBS said the increase was 2.27% points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021, which was (17.38 %). The bureau explained further that, the figure showed that in the month of July 2022 the general price level was 2.26% higher than in July 2021.
“The rise was driven by inflation rate which stood at 22.02 % on a year-on-year basis; which was 0.99% higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021 (21.03%).
“This rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, food products like, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, oil, and fat,” it said.
“On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July was 2.04%, this was a 0.01% insignificant decline compared to the rate recorded in June 2022 (2.05%).
“This decline is attributed to a reduction in the prices of some food items like tubers, maize, garri, and vegetables.
“The average annual rate of food inflation for the 12-month period ending July 2022 over the previous 12-month average was 18.75%, which was a 1.42% points decline from the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2021 (20.16%),” NBS explained.
