February 15, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s consumer price inflation rate fell from 15.63 percent in December 2021 to 15.60 percent in January 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.
The statistics office said the prices of goods and services, measured by the Consumer Price Index, increased by 15.60 per cent (year-on-year) in January 2022.
“This is 0.87 percent points lower than the rate recorded in January 2021 (16.47) percent.
“This shows that headline inflation rate slowed down in January, when compared to the same month in the previous year,” NBS said.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline index, inclusive of items with volatile prices like food and fuel, increased to 1.47 percent in January 2022, which is 0.34 percent points lower than the 1.82 percent recorded in December 2021.
According to NBS, the composite food index rose by 17.13 percent in January 2022 compared to 20.57 percent in January 2021.
It further explained that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products potatoes, yam and other tubers, soft drinks, oils and fats and fruit.
Furthermore, the NBS revealed that on a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.62 percent in January 2022, down by 0.57 percent from 2.19 percent recorded in December 2021.
“The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve months ending January 2022 over the previous twelve-month average was 20.09 per cent, 0.31 percent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in December 2021 (20.40) per cent,” it said.
Commenting further, the statistics bureau added that the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months ending January 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve-month period was 16.87 per cent, showing a 0.08 percent point from 16.95 percent recorded in December 2021.
“The urban inflation rate increased to 16.17 percent year-on-year in January 2022 from 17.03 percent recorded in January 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 15.06 percent in January 2022 from 15.92 percent in January 2021.
“On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose to 1.53 percent in January 2022, down by 0.34 percent from 1.87 percent the rate recorded in December 2021.
“The rural index also rose to 1.42 percent in January 2022, down by 0.35 percent points from 1.77 percent of the rate recorded in December 2021,” the NBS.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
