Amid sustained rise in food prices, Nigeria has recorded a 10th consecutive rise in inflation rate to a new high of 27.33% for the month of October, as analysts see further rises in the months ahead.
The new figure represents a 0.61 percentage points year-on-year (YoY) when compared to 26.72% recorded in September.
The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, which disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index, CPI, report for October yesterday, noted that the food index increased YoY to 31.52% from 30.64%.
According to NBS, the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese and eggs.
NBS said: “In October 2023, the headline inflation rate increased to 27.33% relative to the September 2023 headline inflation rate which was 26.72%.
“Looking at the movement, the October 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.61 percentage points when compared to the September 2023 headline inflation rate.
However, the inflation rate declined month-on-month (MoM) by 0.37 percentage points to 1.73percent in October from 2.1 percent in September.
On food inflation, NBS stated: “The rise in food inflation on a YoY basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese and eggs.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in October 2023 was 1.91 percent this was 0.54 percentage points lower compared to the rate recorded in September 2023 (2.45 percent)”.
According to NBS, food inflation was a YoY basis the highest in Kogi (41.74 percent), Kwara (38.48 percent) and Lagos (37.37 percent), while Borno (24.41 percent), Kebbi (24.90 percent) and Jigawa (25.10 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation during the period.
