By Modupe Gbadeyanka
For the third consecutive month, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation rate, depreciated to 17.24 percent in the month of April 2017 from what was recorded in the previous month.
This information was revealed on Tuesday, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The stats agency explained that the drop in the inflation rate to 17.24 percent in April from 17.26 percent in March shows a sign of ease in the already “high food and non-food prices, as well as favourable base effects over 2016 price.”
According to the NBS, increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yield the Headline Index.
The top items to have recorded the highest year on year increases across all the divisions were solid fuels, bread and cereals, meat, liquid fuels, clothing materials, other articles of clothing and clothing accessories, and fish.
it noted that on a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 1.60 percent in April 2017, 0.12 percent points lower than the rate recorded in March.
On a month on month basis, the highest rise in prices were dominated by food items including coffee, tea and cocoa, potato, yam and tubers, bread and cereals, milk cheese and eggs and meat and fish.
The Headline Index is made up of the Core Index and Farm Produce items. Processed Foods are included in both the Core and Food sub-indices; implying that these sub-indices are not mutually exclusive.
Also, the Urban index rose by 17.62 percent (year-on-year) in April from 18.27 percent recorded in March, and the Rural index increased by 16.69 percent in April from 16.47 percent in March.
On month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 1.61 percent in April from 1.76 percent recorded in March, while the rural index rose by 1.59 percent in April from 1.69 percent in March.
The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index increased from 18.79 percent in March to 18.98 percent in April, while the corresponding rural index also increased from 16.05 percent in March to 16.69 percent in April.
Adedapo Adesanya