Nigeria’s Inflation Climbs to 18-year High of 24.08% in July 2023

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed to a fresh 18-year high on surging food prices and energy costs to 24.08 per cent in July, compared with 22.79 per cent in the prior month, according to the data published on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website on Tuesday.

Looking at the movement, the July 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.29 per cent points when compared to June 2023 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 4.44 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2022, which was 19.64 per cent. This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in July 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., July 2022).

It was shown that the highest contribution was food and non-alcoholic beverages at 12.5 per cent, while housing water, electricity, gas & other fuels attributed to around 4.03 per cent, followed by clothing & footwear at 1.8 per cent, while Transport amounted to 1.6 per cent.

Others include furnishings, household equipment and maintenance at 1.2 per cent, followed by education at 0.95 per cent while health added 0.72 per cent followed by miscellaneous goods & services at 0.4 per cent, while restaurant & hotels contributed around 0.29 per cent, followed by alcoholic beverages, tobacco & kola with 0.26. Recreation and culture added 0.17 per cent, while Communication came in at 0.16 cent.

On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2023 was 2.89 per cent, which was 0.76 per cent higher than the rate recorded in June 2023 (2.13 per cent). This means that in July 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.76 per cent higher relative to June 2023.

This confirmed a continued rise in basics since President Bola Tinubu took office and removed fuel subsidies and devalued the Naira amid unification plans, a move that sent the local currency to around N750 on average at the official Investors and Exporters (I&E) market and over N800 at other alternative segments.