AVERAGE PRICES OF EGGS, RICE & YAMS INCREASED IN FEBRUARY – NBS

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The average price of imported rice increased by 1.24% in February, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has said.

The NBS, in its “Selected Food Price watch data for February 2018” released on Wednesday in Abuja, noted that one kilogram (1kg) was sold for N365.21 in February 2018 from N360.76 in January 2017.

According to the report, average price of 1 dozen of Agric eggs medium size decreased year-on-year by 0.21% and month-on-month by 18.75% to N519.07 in February 2018 from N437.13 in January 2018 while the average price of piece of Agric eggs medium size(price of one) decreased year-on-year by -3.81% and month-on-month by 6.24% to N41.27 in February 2018 from N38.85 in January 2018.

It further stated that the average price of 1kg of tomato increased year-on-year by 12.88% and decreased month-on-month by – 1.80% to N267.10 in February 2018 from N271.99 in January 2018

Similarly, the average price of 1kg of yam tuber increased year-on-year by 7.10% and month-on-month by 1.92% to N230.85 in February 2018 from N226.51 in January 2018.

According to the NBS, the major items responsible for the sustained pressure on the food index, albeit at a much slower rate, were prices of bread and cereals, vegetables, potatoes, yam and other tubers, coffee tea and cocoa, milk cheese and eggs and fish. For the headline index, the highest increases were observed in the prices of bread & cereals, vegetables, meat, potatoes, yam & other tubers, coffee, tea & cocoa, amongst other items.

Imported Food Inflation is the highest of all major sub-indices tracked by the National Bureau of Statistics – a record it has held since August 2017. This is despite improved currency liquidity and relative stability in the dollar/naira exchange rate in recent times, as well as only mild global food price pressure. On another note, whilst we acknowledge imminent excise duty hikes, we expect only a marginal effect on inflation as alcohol & tobacco products account for barely 1% of the Consumer Price Index. However, we remain cautious about the sustainability of food inflation moderation through the year in light of disruptions to farming activities as a result of the herdsmen conflict.

According to the NBS, over 700 staff were sent to all the states of the Federation for the field work and were supervised by experts.

Prices were, thereafter, collected across all the 774 local governments across all states and the FCT from over 10,000 respondents, locations and analyzed, it explained.

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