Nigeria’s Inflation Falls to 3-Year Low of 11.08% in July 2019

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation, moderated to 11.08 percent in July 2019, according to the latest inflation report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday morning.

From the NBS report, Business Post gathered that inflation dropped by 0.14 percent points year-on-year, lower than the 11.22 percent rate recorded in June 2019. This is the lowest inflation rate Nigeria has recorded in over three years.

In the data released today, the stats office noted that on month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.01 percent in July 2019, which is 0.06 percent lower than the rate recorded in June 2019 (1.07) percent.

In addition, the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending July 2019 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 11.29 percent, compared to 11.29 percent recorded in June 2019.

It was further stated that the urban inflation rate increased by 11.43 percent year-on-year in July 2019 from 11.61 percent recorded in June 2019, while the rural inflation rate increased by 10.64 percent in July 2019 from 10.87 percent in June 2019.

On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 1.07 percent in July 2019, down by 0.03 from 1.10 percent recorded in June 2019, while the rural index also rose by 0.96 percent in July 2019, down by 0.09 from the rate recorded in June 2019 (1.05) percent.

The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 11.64 percent in July 2019. This is less than 11.65 percent reported in June 2019, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in July 2019 is 10.97 percent compared to 10.99 percent recorded in June 2019.

Also, food inflation rose by 13.39 percent in the month under review from 13.56 percent in June 2019 and this was caused by increases in prices of oils and fats, meat, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, and fish.

On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.26 percent in July 2019, down by 0.10 percent points from 1.36 percent recorded in June 2019.

Also, core inflation dropped to 8.80 percent from 8.84 percent recorded in the previous month.