Fuel scarcity threatens GDP, employment rates, says NBS chief

The fuel crisis being currently experienced by consumers across the country is likely to create an artificial shock that would have an adverse impact on not only Nigeria’s  inflation rate,  but also other macroeconomic variables, such as the gross domestic product (GDP) and the unemployment rates, says Simon Harry, Nigeria’s statistician general.

Harry, who stated this while announcing the January 2022 Consumer Price Index (CPI), explained that transporters will take advantage of the situation to increase the costs of transportation, while marketers bringing commodities to the market for sale, will be forced to add some amount on the selling costs so  as to recover the costs of transportation, igniting a negative signal that is capable of affecting inflation rate.

“I can, however, assure you that certainly it is not the best for the economy and if we must maintain a stable macroeconomic environment, this kind of crisis certainly is not the best, for it is not needed,” Harry said.

Harry added that because the economy was strongly being driven by the private sector, the shock may affect a good number of private businesses as they may not be able to run effectively as expected.

He, however, said that the February inflation rate could not be predicted based on the current fuel crisis as the numbers were still being collected.

Announcing the latest consumer price index rate, Harry said that the CPI for January 2022 stood at 15.60 percent, down from 15.63 percent recorded in December 2021. He also stated that the figure was 0.87 percent points lower year-on-year compared to the 16.47 percent  recorded in January 2021.

The statistician-general further stated that the headline index increased by 1.47 percent in January, 0.34 percent points lower than 1.82 percent recorded in December 2021.