Nigeria inflation rate eases to 33.40% in July

Business a.m.

Nigeria’s persistent battle with inflation showed signs of improvement in July 2024, as the country’s inflation rate declined to 33.40 percent from the 34.19 percent inflation rate recorded in June 2024, marking the lowest rate in over a year. 

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed the latest inflation figures in its Consumer Price Index and Inflation report just released.

The headline inflation rate for July 2024 also dropped significantly compared to June, as indicated by the NBS report. At 33.40 percent, the July 2024 inflation rate marked a decrease of 0.8 percentage points from the June 2024 headline inflation rate of 34.19 percent. 

While the month-to-month inflation rate experienced a decrease in July 2024, the year-on-year inflation rate (compared to July 2023) revealed an increase of 9.32 percentage points, from 24.08 percent to 33.40 percent, according to the NBS report. 

In addition to the year-on-year comparison, the month-on-month inflation rate for July 2024 was also lower than the previous month, indicating a gradual slowdown in the rate of inflation. At 2.28 percent, the month-to-month inflation rate in July 2024 was slightly lower than the 2.31 percent recorded in June 2024. 

The NBS report also highlighted a significant increase in the twelve-month inflation rate compared to the previous year. The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending July 2024 stood at 30.76 percent, an 8.84 percent increase from the 21.92 percent recorded in the same period a year earlier. This higher twelve-month inflation rate indicated that, despite the recent decrease in inflation, prices have still increased considerably over the last year.

Food inflation

The NBS report further revealed that food inflation in July 2024 was 12.55 percentage points higher than the same period last year at a 39.53 percent year-on-year inflation rate. This implies that food prices have risen significantly over the last twelve months.

The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was attributed to increases in prices of semovita, yam flour (prepacked), wheat flour (prepacked), etc (bread and cereals class), yam, Irish potatoes, water yam, etc (potatoes, yam & other tubers class), groundnut oil, palm oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class) and Milo, Bournvita, Ovaltine (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class), etc. 

On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July 2024 stood at 2.47 percent, a 0.08 percent decrease compared to the 2.55 percent rate recorded in June 2024. 

The report attributed the month-on-month fall in food inflation to the decline in the rate of increase in the average prices of tin milk, baby powdered milk, etc (Under Milk, Cheese & egg Class), Mudfish fish, Fresh fish (Obokun), snail, etc (Under Fish Class), Date Palm fruit (Debenu), Watermelon, etc Garri, Akpu (fufu), etc (Under Bread and Cereals Class), Exercise books, Textbooks, etc (Under Books & Stationery Class) and Turkey meat, Minced Pork, etc (Under Meat Class). 

Meanwhile, the average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending June 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 36.36 percent, an 11.90 percent point increase from the average annual rate of 24.46 percent change recorded in July 2023.