Nigeria’s Headline inflation has surged to 31.70 percent in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed.
The NBS in its report noted that inflation figure rose from 29.90 percent in January 2024.
Media reports have it that Nigeria’s headline inflation has been on the rise consecutively in the past 15 months despite the raise of interest rate by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The NBS stated on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.79 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in February 2023, which was 21.91 percent.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in the month of February 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2023).”
It stated that Food inflation rate rose by 37.92 percent on a year-on-year basis, which was 13.57 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in February 2023 (24.35 percent).
“The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, oil and fat, meat, fruit, coffee, tea, and cocoa.”
“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in February 2024 was 3.79% this was 0.58% higher compared to the rate recorded in January 2024 (3.21%). The rise in the Food Inflation on a month-on-month basis was caused by a rise in the rate of increase in the average prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam & other tubers, fish, coffee, tea, and cocoa.”