By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s inflation rate for July 2021 dropped for the fourth consecutive month to 17.38 per cent from the 17.75 per cent recorded in June 2021.
According to the latest Consumer Price Index Report for July released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), this happened because of a slower rise in the prices of food.
The data showed that food inflation declined to 21.03 per cent from 21.83 per cent recorded in the previous month, implying that food prices continued to rise in July 2021 but at a slower speed than in June 2021.
According to the NBS, this rise in the food index in June was caused by increases in the prices of milk, cheese and eggs, coffee, tea and cocoa, vegetables, bread and cereals, soft drinks and meat.
On a year-on-year, which means that while prices continued to rise in July 2021 over July 2020, the pace of the increase was slower when compared to June 2021 versus June 2020.
The fall between both months was 0.37 per cent or 37 basis points.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased 0.93 per cent in July, 0.13 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in June.
The urban inflation rate increased by 18.01 per cent (year-on-year) in July 2021 from 18.35 per cent recorded in June 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased by 16.75 per cent in July 2021 from 17.16 per cent in June 2021.
It added that month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 0.86 per cent in July 2021, down by 0.25 per cent points from 1.11 per cent recorded in June 2021.
“The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve months ending July 2021 over the previous twelve-month average was 20.16 per cent, 0.44 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in June 2021 (19.72 per cent),” it said.
The report showed Kogi state led the three highest states in terms of food inflation with 28.5 per cent, Enugu followed with 24.6 per cent and Lagos came next with 24.0 per cent while Akwa Ibom (17.9 per cent), Bauchi (17.7 per cent) and Abuja (16.7 per cent) recorded the slowest.
Dipo Olowookere