By John Ikani
After eight months of decline, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 15.36 per cent in December 2021, from 15.50 per cent recorded in November.
This is according to the consumer price index report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Earlier data from the NBS showed that headline inflation has been on a downward trajectory since April 2021.
However, the trend was broken in December when year-on-year inflation climbed 0.23 points higher than figure recorded in November.
The statistics office said the prices of goods and services, measured by the Consumer Price Index, increased by 15.63 per cent in December 2021 when compared to December 2020.
“This is 0.13 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in December 2020 (15.75) per cent,” it said.
“This is showing a slowing down in the rate when compared to the corresponding period of 2020”.
But comparing the rate to the year-on-year performance in the previous months shows that the rate has increased.
Also, comparing the rate of price change between December and November (month-on-month) shows that the headline index rose by 1.82 per cent in December 2021. The November figure was 1.08 per cent.
The rise was in part driven by a continued surge in food inflation.
The NBS said food inflation, which is the composite food index, rose by 17.37 per cent in December 2021, down by 2.19 per cent points when compared to 19.56 per cent in December 2020.
According to the NBS, this rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products, meat, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, soft drinks and fruits.
It added that on a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 2.19 per cent in December 2021, up by 1.12 per cent points from 1.07 per cent recorded in November 2021.
“The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve months ending December 2021 over the previous twelve-month average was 20.40 per cent, 0.22 per cent points lower from the average annual rate of change recorded in November 2021 (20.62) per cent,” it said.
