The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), says Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 19.64 per cent on a year-on-year basis in July.
The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Prince Semiu Adeniran, stated this in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July 2022, which was released by the bureau in Abuja on Monday.
Giving a breakdown of the report in a statement, Adeniran said that the CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.
He claims that it is a crucial macroeconomic indicator that is used to calculate the inflation rate for the purposes of policy, planning, and economic monitoring.
Adeniran said the report showed that in July 2022, on a year–on–year basis, the headline inflation rate was 19.64 per cent.
According to him, increases were observed in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that contributed to the Headline index.
Adeniran said the increase in inflation was caused by an increase in the food index attributed to the disruption in the supply of food products.
The statistician-general also said the increase in inflation was caused by an increase in the cost of transportation arising from the higher cost of energy.
According to him, the increase in the inflation rate was also due to an increase in import costs as a result of currency depreciation, as well as a general increase in the cost of production.
He said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 per cent, which was higher than the rate recorded in June 2022 at 1.816 per cent.
Adeniran said the composite food index on a year-on-year basis was 22.02 per cent in July 2022, showing a rise compared to 21.03 per cent in July 2021.
He said the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Food products, potatoes, yam, and other tubers, meat, fish, oil, and fat.
The statistician-general said on a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index in July 2022 was 2.04 per cent lower than the 2.05 per cent recorded in June 2022.
He said the highest increases were recorded in prices of gas, liquid fuel, solid fuel, passenger transport by road, passenger transport by air, garments, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing.
Adeniran said on a year-on-year basis, in July 2022, the urban inflation rate was 20.09 per cent, 2.08 per cent higher compared to 18.01 per cent recorded in July 2021.
He said on a month-on-month basis the urban inflation rate was 1.82 per cent in July 2022, showing a decline compared to June 2022 at 1.82 per cent.
According to Adeniran, the rural inflation rate in July 2022 was 19.22 percent year on year, which was 2.47 percent higher than the 16.75 percent reported in July 2021.
He added that all Items of Inflation for the states in July 2022 on a year-on-year basis was highest in Akwa Ibom with 22.88 per cent, followed by Ebonyi with 22.51 per cent, and Kogi with 22.08 per cent.
Jigawa had the slowest increase, according to the statistician general, with 16.62%, followed by Kaduna State with 17.04% and Borno with 18.04%.
Adeniran said on a month-on-month basis, July 2022 recorded the highest increase in Adamawa with 2.87 per cent, followed by Abuja with 2.84 per cent, and Oyo State with 2.77 per cent.