The latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that Nigeria’s inflation rate jumped to 33.2% for March 2024.
In comparison to the 31.7% reported in February 2024, this indicates a 1.5% point gain. In March 2024, the rate of inflation increased more slowly than it did in February 2024, by 1.80%.
The cost of electricity and housing, together with increases in food and drink, contributed to March’s inflation.
The headline inflation rate rose from 22.04% in March 2023 to 11.16% every year. In addition, the headline inflation rate for March 2024 was 3.02%, down 0.10% from 3.12% in February 2024.
Food Price Inflation
The rate of food inflation increased by 15.56 percentage points from 24.45% in March 2023 to 40.01% in March 2024. Rising costs for products like yam tuber, water yam, and garri, as well as millet and akpu uncooked fermented (all under the category of Bread and Cereals), are the likely causes of this increase in food inflation.
In March 2024, the monthly food inflation rate was 3.62%, which was 0.17% less than in February 2024 when it was 3.79%.
The average annual food inflation rate for the year ending in March 2024 was 31.40%, up 8.69% points from the 22.72% reported for the year ending in March 2023.
Urban inflation
March 2023 saw a 12.11% increase in urban inflation from 23.07% to 35.18% year over year. The urban inflation rate for March 2024 was 3.17% month over month, indicating a slight decline of 0.0001% point from February 2024, when it was 3.17% as well.
Rural inflation
In March 2024, the rural inflation rate increased by 10.37 percentage points from 21.09% in March 2023 to 31.45% in March 2024 on an annual basis. The rural inflation rate dropped from 3.07% in February 2024 to 2.87% in March 2024, a decrease of 0.20% points month over month.
Core inflation
Core inflation, which does not include energy and volatile agricultural commodity prices, increased by 6.26% from 19.63% in March 2023 to 25.90% in March 2024 on a year-over-year basis.
Core inflation increased from 2.17% in February 2024 to 2.54% in March 2024 on a month-over-month basis. Over the twelve months that ended in March 2024, the average annual inflation rate was 22.26%, which was 5.04% points higher than the 17.22% rate that was noted in March 2023.
