The National Bureau of Statistics has stated that the country’s inflation dropped to 17.24 per cent in April on year-on-year basis from 17.26 per cent in March.
According to a report released in Abuja, the NBS stated in “Consumer Price Index April 2017 that the inflation was 0.02 per cent lower than the rate recorded in March which is the third consecutive month of a decline in the headline CPI rate, exhibiting effects of some easing already high food and non-food prices as well as favourable base effects over 2016 prices.
“Increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yield the Headline Index.
“The top items to have recorded the highest year- on- year increases across all the divisions were Solid Fuels, Bread and Cereals.
“Meat, Liquid Fuels, Clothing materials, other articles of clothing and clothing accessories, and Fish also recorded increase.’’
On a month-on-month basis, the report stated the Headline index increased by 1.60 per cent in April which was 0.12 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in March.
“On a month-on-month basis, the highest rise in prices was dominated by food items including coffee, tea and cocoa and potatoes.
“Other food items are yam and tubers, bread and cereals, milk cheese and eggs and meat.”
The CPI measures the average changeover time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living and its construction combines economic theory, sampling and other statistical techniques using data from other surveys to produce a weighted measure of average price changes in the economy.
