Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday said the inflation rate in Nigeria increased by 28.20 per cent in November 2023, as food inflation bit harder by 32.84 per cent.
In the preceding month, the statistics office put the nation’s inflation at 27.33 per cent, indicating that within a month, the rate rose by 0.87 per cent.
On a year-on-year basis, the increase was 6.73 per cent because, in the same period of last year, inflation was 21.47 per cent.
According to the report analysed by Business Post, the major driver of the higher inflation in the period under consideration was the increase in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, transport, house rents, electricity and others.
The NBS disclosed that the percentage change in the average CPI for the 12-month period ending November 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12-month period was 24.01 per cent, higher than the 18.37 per cent recorded in November 2022 by 5.64 per cent.
As for the urban inflation, the agency said the rate increased on a year-on-year basis to 30.21 per cent versus 22.09 per cent in November 2022, while on a month-on-month basis, it stood at 2.23 per cent in November 2023, higher than the 1.81 per cent in the preceding month by 0.41 per cent.
It said the corresponding 12-month average for the urban inflation rate was 25.45 per cent in November 2023 compared with 18.90 per cent in November 2022.
A look at the rural inflation rate in November 2023 showed that it was 26.43 per cent on a year-on-year basis compared with the 20.88 per cent achieved in the same month of last year, while on a month-on-month basis, it was up by 0.31 per cent to 1.99 per cent from 1.67 per cent in October 2023.
The corresponding 12-month average for the rural inflation rate in November 2023 was 22.71 per cent, in contrast to 17.88 per cent in November 2022.
The NBS said food inflation at 32.84 per cent in November 2023 was 8.72 per cent higher than the 24.13 per cent reported in November 2022, attributing this to increases in the prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and coffee, tea and cocoa.
It said on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in November 2023 was 2.42 per cent compared with 1.91 per cent in the previous month.
