The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 19.64 per cent on a year-on-year basis in July 2022.

This was contained in a report released by the Bureau yesterday.

The report attributed the increase to food inflation rate which hit 22.02 per cent. This was 0.99 per cent higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021 (21.03 per cent).

While giving a breakdown of the report in a statement, the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Prince Semiu Adeniran, said that the Consumer Price Index (CPI)  measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.

According to him, it is a fundamental macroeconomic indicator used in the derivation of the inflation rate for policy, planning and monitoring of an economy.

Adeniran said the report showed that in July 2022, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 19.64 per cent.

“This is 2.27 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021, which was 17.38 per cent.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate increased in July 2022 when compared to the same month in the previous year of July 2021.

“This means that in July 2022, the general price level was 2.26 per cent higher than in July 2021.’’

He noted that the increase in inflation was caused by an increase in food index attributed to the disruption in the supply of food products and increase in the cost of transportation arising from the higher cost of energy.

Another reason he gave for the increase in inflation rate was also due to an increase in import costs as a result of currency depreciation, as well as a general increase in the cost of production.

Breakdown of Report 

The Statistician-General added that all items’ inflation rate for the states in July 2022 on a year-on-year basis was highest in Akwa Ibom with 22.88 per cent, followed by Ebonyi with 22.51 per cent, and Kogi with 22.08 per cent.

The statistician-general said the slowest rise was recorded in Jigawa with 16.62 per cent, followed by Kaduna State with 17.04 per cent and Borno with 18.04 per cent.

Adeniran said on a month-on-month basis, July 2022 recorded the highest increase in Adamawa with 2.87 per cent, followed by Abuja with 2.84 per cent, and Oyo State with 2.77 per cent.

According to him, “Bauchi recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation with 0.82 per cent, followed by Kano State with 0.83 per cent and Niger State with 1.03 per cent.’’

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