Just In: Nigeria’s inflation rate declined for the seventh consecutive month

The National Bureau of Statistics has revealed that Nigeria’s inflation rate declined for the seventh consecutive month to 15.99 per cent in October.

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Simon Harry, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while presenting the details of the Consumer Price Index report for October.

According to him, the inflation rate fell by 0.37 per cent from 16.36 per cent in September.

He said that on a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.98 percent in October 2021, adding that this is 0.17 per cent rate lower than the 1.15 per cent recorded in September 2021.

He also disclosed that farm produce such as bread, cereals, cocoa, meat, coffee, tea, and cocoa drove food inflation, which fell to 18.34 per cent in October from 19.57 percent in September.

According to the bureau, increases were recorded in all classifications of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.

“On month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.98 percent in October 2021, this is 0.17 percent rate lower than the rate recorded in September 2021 (1.15) percent,” the report reads.

“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending October 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.96 percent, showing 0.13 percent point from 16.83 percent recorded in September 2021.”

According to the document (Consumer Price Index) obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of food product such as coffee, tea and cocoa, milk, cheese and eggs; bread and cereals, vegetables and potatoes, yam and other tuber.

“On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 0.91 per cent in October 2021, down by 0.35 per cent points from 1.26 per cent recorded in September 2021. The average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending October 2021 over the previous twelve-month average was 20.75 per cent, 0.04 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in September 2021 (20.71) per cent” it said.