By Lucy Adautin
Nigeria’s annual inflation rate continued to accelerate to hit a nearly 30-year high of 28.9% in December 2023, up from 28.2% in the prior month.
This was disclosed in the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) December 2023 Consumer Price Index (CPI) which was released on Monday afternoon.
The CPI measures the rate of change in the prices of foods and services. Before Monday’s release, the country’s inflation rate was at 28.20% as of November 2023.
“Looking at the movement, the December 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72% points when compared to the November 2023 headline inflation rate,” the NBS wrote.
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.29%, which was 0.20% higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.09%). This means that in December 2023, the rate of increase in the average price level is more than the rate of increase in the average price level in November 2023,” it added.
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“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.72%, this was 0.30% higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.42%),” the CPI report read.
“The rise in Food inflation on a Month-on-Month basis was caused by a rise in the rate of increase in the average prices of Oil and fat, Meat, Bread and Cereals, Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers, Fish and Milk, Cheese, and Egg. The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending December 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 27.96%, which was a 7.02% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in December 2022 (20.94%).”
