Inflation Rises 16th Consecutive Month – NBS
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has declared that the inflation rate in the country rose for the 16th consecutive month in December 2020.
The NBS, which announced the continuous inflation rate in its latest report released on Thursday, noted that the Inflation figure for the month of December 2020 showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation in Nigeria rose to 15.75% in the month of December 2020 as against 14.89% in November 2020 representing a percentage increase of 0.86%.
It said that this is the highest it has risen since 2017, adding that this is as a result of the festive spending with increase in the price of food, transportation, household items and services along with the hike in electricity tariff.
On a month-on-month basis, the NBS said that the Headline index also increased by 1.61% in December 2020, which is 0.01% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2020 (1.60%).
In the same vein, it said that the Composite Food Index rose to print 19.56% in December 2020 from 18.30% in November 2020, adding that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in the prices of Bread and cereals, Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, Meat, Fruits, Vegetables, Fish and Oils and fats.
The report further said; “All Items less Farm Produce known as Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce went up by 0.32% to 11.37% from 11.05% in November 2020.
“Urban and Rural inflation rose to 16.33% and 15.20% YoY from 15.47% and 14.33% respectively,” it said.
The NBS also said that the highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by air, medical services, hospital services, shoes, and other footwear, passenger transport by road, miscellaneous services relating to dwellings, hairdressing salons and personal grooming establishments, and repair of furniture.
According to NBS; “Others include vehicle spare parts, pharmaceutical products, motor cars, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment, paramedical services, motorcycle, dental services, and bicycles.
“Inflation in the month of January is expected to rise further as we continue to grapple with the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic which has affected the global economy; with new worries of the second wave of the coronavirus may lead to a second round of lockdown in the country, structural bottlenecks, dwindling investment returns and currency market challenges, which will cause the inflation rate remain biased to the upside”.
