By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to announce the inflation rate for July 2024 on Thursday, August 15, 2024.
In June, the average prices of goods and services rose by 33.19 per cent as a result of the continued spike in the cost of food in Nigeria due to insecurity in the country.
This has yet to be solved by the government, which handles fiscal policies, though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which controls monetary policies, has been making efforts to tame inflation through consistent interest rate hikes.
As the nation awaits the inflation numbers from the NBS tomorrow, analysts at Meristem Research have projected 33.42 per cent for last month.
In a note released on Tuesday, the firm stated that the headline inflation should cool by 0.77 per cent to 33.42 per cent from its 28-year high of 34.19 per cent in June 2024, with food inflation slowing to 39.71 per cent from 40.87 per cent in June 2024, and the core inflation contracting to 27.29 per cent from 27.40 per cent in June 2024.
Explaining the rationale behind its projection of a moderation in food inflation, Meristem Research said this is due to “the increased supply of essential food items like yam, which led to lower prices.”
“Other key staples like tomatoes and rice also saw a decline during the month. Moreover, the high base effect from July 2023 is anticipated to further temper inflation figures in July.
“For the core index, we anticipate a slight decline for July, primarily due to the high base effect from July 2023. However, the Naira’s depreciation during the month (6.87% MoM compared to 1.94% in June) on the NAFEM window might offset some of this moderation, potentially slowing the pace of the decline.
“Overall, we anticipate a slowdown in the July 2024 inflation rate driven by these factors,” a part of the report obtained by Business Post stated.
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