Nigeria’s inflation rose to 27.33%, mainly driven by prices of food, housing, transportation, fuel and surprisingly, non-acolholic beverages.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the October 2023 Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report on Wednesday, indicating a further rise in inflation.
In October, the headline inflation rate increased to 27.33% relative to the September headline inflation rate, which was 26.72%.
“Looking at the movement, the October 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.61% points when compared to the September 2023 headline inflation rate,” NBS stated.
Furthermore, the bureau noted that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.24% points higher compared to 21.09% recorded in October 2022.
This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in October 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., October 2022).
An analysis of the NBS data by The Nigerian Economy showed that the contributions of items on the divisional level to the increase in the headline index were led by food & non-alcoholic beverages with a whopping 14.16%, while housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel followed distantly with a combined 4.57%.
Recreation and communication contributed the least, showing that citizens have cut expenditure on them to focus more on food, consumables and housing needs.
The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending October 2023 over
the average of the CPI for the previous twelve-month period was 23.44%, showing a 5.57% increase compared to 17.86% recorded in October 2022.
On a year-on-year basis, in October 2023, the Urban inflation rate was 29.29%, this was 7.66% points higher compared to the 21.63% recorded in October 2022. On a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate was 1.81% in October 2023, this was 0.43% points lower compared to September 2023 (2.24%). The corresponding twelve-month average for the Urban inflation rate was 24.76% in October 2023. This was 6.38% points higher compared to the
18.38% reported in October 2022..
Also rural inflation rate in October 2023 was 25.58% on a year-on-year basis; this was 5.01% higher compared to the 20.57% recorded in October 2022. On a month-on-month basis, the
Rural inflation rate in October 2023 was 1.67%, declined by 0.29% points compared to September 2023 (1.96%). The corresponding twelve-month average for the Rural inflation rate in
October 2023 was 22.23%. This was 4.85% higher compared to the 17.38% recorded in October 2022
The CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.
