Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation, increased by 15.70 per cent year-on-year for the month of February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which disclosed this in its CPI and Inflation Report on Tuesday.
The report stated that “this is 1.63 per cent points lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2021 (17.33) per cent,” indicative that the headline inflation rate slowed down in February when compared to the same month in the previous year, but higher than the 15.60 per cent reported in the preceding month.
Also detailed in the report were increases in all COICOP divisions that yielded the headline index.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased to 1.63 per cent in February 2022, 0.16 per cent higher than the rate recorded in January 2022 (1.47 per cent).
“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending February 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.73 per cent, showing 0.14 per cent point from 16.87 per cent recorded in January 2022,” the stats office disclosed in its report today.
Concerning the urban inflation rate, an increase to 16.25 per cent (year-on-year) in February 2022 from 17.92 per cent was recorded in February 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 15.18 per cent in February 2022 from 16.77 per cent in February 2021.
“On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose to 1.65 per cent in February 2022, up by 0.12 the rate recorded in January 2022 (1.53) per cent, while the rural index also rose to 1.61 per cent in February 2022, up by 0.19 the rate that was recorded in January 2022 (1.42) per cent,” the NBS further stated in the report.
“The 12-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 17.29 per cent in February 2022. This is lower than the 17.44 per cent reported in January 2022, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in February 2022 is 16.18 per cent which is lower than the 16.31 per cent recorded in January 2022,” the report also said.
