By Adedapo Adesanya
The headline inflation rate in Nigeria increased to 11.24 percent (year-on-year) in September 2019 from the 11.02 percent it recorded in August 2019, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed on Tuesday.
Business Post reports that the inflation jumped by this higher margin as the effect of the border closure by federal government as well as stringent economic policies continue to bite hard on the nation, causing prices of goods and food items to rise at the market.
According to the stats office, the consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation, rose in the period under review by 0.22 percent when compared with the previous month.
The border closure, which did not reflect much in the August figures because it was only captured for 11 days during the 31 days reference period, heavily impacted on the September figures.
In the report released this morning, the bureau noted that increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.
On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.04 percent in September 2019, which is 0.05 points higher than the rate recorded in August 2019 at 0.99 percent.
The data showed that the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending September 2019 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 11.268 percent, showing 0.003 percent point from 11.271 percent recorded in August 2019.
Increases also reflected in both urban and rural inflation as urban inflation rate increased by 11.78 percent (year-on-year) in September 2019 from 11.48 percent recorded in August 2019, while the rural inflation rate increased by 10.77 percent in September 2019 from 10.61 percent in August 2019.
On a month-on-month basis, urban index rose by 1.13 percent in September 2019, indicating a 0.09 rise compared to 1.04 percent recorded in August 2019, while the rural index also rose by 0.96 percent in September 2019, up by 0.03 from the 0.93 percent recorded in August 2019.
The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 11.63 percent in September 2019 which is higher than 11.62 percent reported in August 2019, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in September 2019 is 10.94 percent compared to 10.95 percent recorded in the previous month.
The data indicated that price of food such as bread and cereals, oils and fats, meat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish and vegetables all recorded increases in prices.
According to the NBS, the composite food index rose by 13.51 percent in September 2019 from 13.17 percent in August 2019.
It was stated that this rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Oils and fats, Meat, Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, Fish and Vegetables.
On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.30 percent in September 2019, up by 0.08 percent points from 1.22 percent recorded in August 2019.
The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending September 2019 over the previous twelve-month average was 13.47 percent, 0.01 percent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in August 2019 (13.46) percent.
