Nigeria’s inflation rate increased for the seventh consecutive month in June, rising to 18.6 percent, up 0.9 percentage point from 17.71 percent in May 2022.
This is the highest level since January of last year.
This was stated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its consumer price index (CPI) report for June 2022, which was released on Friday.
Dr. Muda Yusuf, the founder/CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), said that one of the major drivers of inflation in the country is high energy costs, and that the government should suspend all forms of taxes and levies on the importation of petroleum products as soon as possible to provide relief from the country’s spiking energy costs.
The NBS figure for June this year is also 0.84 percentage point higher than the figure for June 2021, which is 17.75 percent.
Increases were recorded in all classifications of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index, according to the report.
“The headline inflation rate increased to 1.82 percent in June 2022, which is 0.03 percent higher than the rate recorded in May 2022 (1.78 percent),” according to the report.
“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months ending June 2022 over the previous 12 months period is 16.54 percent, representing a 0.62 percent increase compared to the 15.93 percent recorded in June 2021.”
According to the report, food inflation increased to 20.60 percent year on year in June 2022, but the rate of change in average price level decreased by 1.23 percent when compared to 21.83 percent in June 2021.
“This increase in the food index was caused by price increases in bread and cereals, non-food products, potatoes, yams, and other tubers, meat, fish, oil and fat, and wine,” it added.
“The food sub-index increased by 0.03 percent month on month to 2.05 percent in June 2022, up from 2.01 percent in May 2022.”
According to the report, Bauchi and Kogi states had the highest price movements.
“In June 2022, Bauchi (21.99 percent), Kogi (21.37 percent), and Ebonyi (20.73 percent) had the highest year-on-year inflation rates, while Adamawa (16.14 percent), Sokoto (16.31 percent), and Jigawa (16.37 percent) had the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation,” it said.
According to Yusuf, prices for the basket of goods consumed by the majority of households have risen by 30 to 100 percent in the last year.
“The same can be said for businesses. “The spiraling inflation dynamics necessitate an immediate policy response at the highest levels of government,” he said, adding that the impact on citizens’ welfare is incalculable.
“The excruciating and unbearable pressure of spiking inflation on household budgets.”
“Purchasing power has been massively eroded, real incomes have been depressed, and the poverty incidence has therefore worsened,” he said. The impact on SMEs is concerning.”
