By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s inflation rate continued at a three-decade high in April 2024, reaching 33.69 per cent, up from the 33.20 per cent it posted in March 2024, marking an increase of 0.49 per cent, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Comparing year-on-year data, the inflation rate in April 2024 was 11.47 per cent higher than the 22.22 per cent it recorded in April 2023, indicating a significant rise over the past year.
Additionally, on a month-to-month basis, the inflation rate for April 2024 was 2.29 per cent, which is 0.73 per cent lower than the 3.02 per cent recorded in March 2024. This suggests that the rate at which prices increased in April 2024 was slower than the rate in March 2024.
The food inflation rate in April 2024 was 40.53 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 15.92 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in April 2023, which was 24.61 per cent.
According to the NBS, the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the millet flour, garri, bread, wheat flour prepacked, Semovita (which are under Bread and Cereals Class), yam tuber, water wam, cocoyam (under Potatoes, Yam and other Tubers Class), coconut oil, palm kernel oil, vegetable oil, (under Oil and fat), dried fish, sardine, catfish dried, mudfish dried (under Fish class), beef head, beef feet, liver, frozen chicken (under Meat class), mango, banana, grapefruit (under Fruit Class), and Lipton Tea, Bournvita, and Milo (under Coffee, Tea and Cocoa Class).
On a year-on-year basis, in April 2024, the urban inflation rate was 36.00 per cent, which was 12.61 per cent points higher compared to the 23.39 per cent recorded in April 2023.
On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 2.67 per cent in April 2024, this was 0.50 per cent points lower compared to March 2024 (3.17 per cent).
For the rural areas, the inflation rate in April 2024 was 31.64 per cent on a year-on-year basis; this was 10.50 per cent higher compared to the 21.14 per cent recorded in April 2023. On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate in April 2024 was 1.92 per cent, down by 0.95 per cent points compared to March 2024 (2.87 per cent).
The rise in inflation means the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will likely hike the interest rates at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for next week (May 20-21).
