Inflation rate rises to 28.92% in December 

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the headline inflation rate increased year-on-year (YoY) by 0.72 percentage points to 28.92 per cent in December 2023 from 28.2 per cent in November 2023.

The Bureau disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index, CPI, report for December 2023, noting that food inflation also increased to 33.93 per cent during the period from 32.84 per cent in November 2023.

NBS said: “In December 2023, the headline inflation rate increased to 28.92% relative to the November 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 28.20 per cent.

“Looking at the movement, the December 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72 per cent points when compared to the November 2023 headline inflation rate.

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the headline inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.29 per cent, which was 0.20 per cent higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.09 per cent). 

“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.”

On food inflation, NBS said: “The food inflation rate in December 2023 was 33.93 per cent on a YoY basis, which was 10.18 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2022 (23.75 per cent). 

“The rise in food inflation on a YoY basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, meat, fruit, milk, cheese, and eggs.

“On a MoM basis, the food inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.72 per cent, this was 0.30 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.42 per cent).

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending December 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 27.96 per cent, which was a 7.02 percentage point increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in December 2022 (20.94 per cent).”