By Adedapo Adesanya
For the first time in 11 months, inflation in Nigeria surprisingly eased to 21.34 per cent in December 2022 amid festivities like Christmas and New Year, which usually add to the rise in prices of goods.
This showed that the rate recorded a decline of 0.13 per cent from 21.47 per cent recorded in November 2022, according to the latest inflation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
However, it was higher than the 15.36 per cent recorded in the same period of 2021 by 5.72 per cent.
Food inflation, a closely watched index, fell to 23.75 per cent in December 2022 from 24.13 per cent recorded in the previous month.
The All items less farm produce index or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 18.49 per cent in December 2022 compared with the 18.24 per cent recorded in November 2022.
On a month-on-month basis, the percentage change in the All Items Index in December 2022 was 1.71 per cent which was 0.32 per cent higher than the rate recorded in November 2022 (1.39 per cent).
This means that in the month of December 2022, the general price level was 0.32 per cent higher relative to November 2022.
The percentage change in the average CPI for the 12-month ending December 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12-month period was 18.85 per cent, showing a 1.89 per cent increase compared to the 16.95 per cent recorded in December 2021.
On a year-on-year basis, in the month of December 2022, the urban inflation rate was 22.01 per cent, 5.85 per cent higher than the 16.17 per cent recorded in December 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.80 per cent in December 2022, 0.31 per cent higher than the 1.50 per cent reported in November 2022).
The stats office disclosed that the corresponding 12-month average for the urban inflation rate was 19.38 per cent in December 2022, higher than the 17.52 per cent achieved in December 2021 by 1.86 per cent.
The rural inflation rate in December 2022 was 20.72 per cent on a year-on-year basis, 5.61 per cent higher than the 15.11 per cent recorded in December 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate in December 2022 was 1.63 per cent, up by 0.33 per cent from 1.30 per cent in November 2022.
The corresponding 12-month average for the rural inflation rate in December 2022 was 18.34 per cent, 1.94 per cent higher than the 16.40 per cent recorded in December 2021
