….Highest Rate In Over 30 Years
Despite sustained policy measures by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to moderate the nation’s inflation rate, the general price level in the economy continues its upward trend, rising to 31.70% in February this year from the 29.90% recorded in the preceding month.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the coordinating agency for the Nigerian statistical system, in its ‘CPI and Inflation Report February 2023’ published on Friday that the headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.80% points on a month-on-month basis.
According to the Bureau, on a year-on-year basis, the inflation rate was 9.79% points higher compared to the 21.91%. rate recorded in February 2023
The Bureau clarified: “Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in February 2024 was 3.12%, which was 0.48% higher than the rate recorded in January 2024 (2.64%). This means that in February 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is more than the rate of increase in the average price level in January 2024.”
The statistics agency indicated that the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve-month ending February 2024 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve-month period was 26.18%, showing a 6.31% increase compared to 19.87% recorded in the corresponding month of last year.
A further analysis of the CPI and Inflation report reflected that on a year-on-year basis, in February this year the Urban inflation rate rose to 33.66%, representing 10.87% points higher compared to the 22.78% recorded in February 2023.
However, on a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate stood at 3.17% in February 2024, which was 0.45% points higher compared to the 2.72% rate recorded in the preceding month.
The NBS reported that the corresponding twelve-month average for the Urban inflation rate was 27.93% in February this year, indicating 7.48% points increase compared to the 20.45% reported in February 2023
On the Rural inflation trend, the Bureau disclosed in February this year Rural inflation was 29.99% on a year-on-year basis, which reflected 8.89% higher when compared to the 21.10% recorded in the corresponding month of last year
In addition, the statistics agency further clarified that on a month-on-month basis, the Rural inflation rate in February this year was 3.07%, rising by 0.50% points compared to the 2.57% recorded in the preceding month
It added that the corresponding twelve-month average for the Rural inflation rate in February 2024 was 24.61%, representing 5.28% higher compared to the 19.33% recorded in February last year.
Methodologically, the CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living. The construction of the CPI combines economic theory, sampling, and other statistical techniques using data from other surveys to produce a weighted measure of average price changes in the Nigerian economy.
The weighting occurs to capture the importance of the selected commodities in the entire index. The production of the CPI requires the skills of economists, statisticians, computer scientists, data collectors, and others.
