Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation rate dropped to 17.01 percent in August, representing the fifth consecutive month of sliding trend in the general price level of the economy.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the nation’s official statistics producing and reporting agency, in its report titled, ‘Consumer Price Index Report for August’, released on Wednesday, indicated that the August CPI rate was 0.37 percent points lower than the 17.38 per cent recorded in the preceding month.
A cursory assessment of the CPI trend over the past few months showed that the inflation rate dropped from 18.17 percent in March to 18.12 per cent in April and subsequently dropped further to 17.93 per cent, 17.75 per cent and 17.38 per cent in the months of May, June and July respectively.
According to the NBS, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline index, however, rose by 1.02 percent in August 2021, representing 0.09 percent higher than the 0.93 percent recorded in July 2021.
The Bureau further reported: “The consumer price index, which measures inflation increased by 17.01 percent (year-on-year) in August 2021.
“This is 0.37 percent points lower than the rate recorded in July 2021 (17.38) percent.
“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending August 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.60 percent, showing 0.30 percent point from 16.30 percent recorded in July 2021.”
Further analysis of the CPI report for the month under review indicated that the urban inflation rate increased by 17.59 percent (year-on-year) in August 2021 from the 18.01 percent recorded in July 2021, while the rural inflation rate also rose by 16.43 percent in August 2021 from 16.75 percent in the previous month.
On a month-on-month basis, the Bureau reported that the urban index rose by 1.06 percent in August 2021, representing 0.08 percent increase over the rate recorded in July 2021, while the rural index rose by 0.99 per cent in August 2021.
It clarified: “The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 17.19 percent in August 2021.
“This is higher than 16.89 percent reported in July 2021, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in August 2021 is 16.03 percent compared to 15.73 percent recorded in July 2021,” the agency added.
For the composite food index, NBS reported that the index rose by 20.30 percent in August compared to 21.03 percent in July and attributed the upward swing of the food index to increases in prices of bread and cereals, milk, cheese and egg, oils and fats, potatoes, yam and other tubers, food products, meat and coffee, tea and cocoa.
This is even as it stated that on a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.06 percent in August, up by 0.20 percent points from the 0.86 percent recorded in the preceding month.
