BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
Inflation continued its upward trend to 20.77 percent in September 2022, recording 4.14 percent growth on a year on year basis, compared to 16.63 percent in the same period in 2021.
The figure released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics represents the highest print in 18 years (September 2005: 24.32% y/y).
This indicates that in the month of September 2022 the general price level was 4.14 percent higher relative to September 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in September 2022 was 1.36%, this was 0.41 percent lower than the rate recorded in August 2022 (1.77%).
This means that in the month of September 2022, the headline inflation rate (month–on–month basis) declined by 0.41 percent, relative to August 2022.
The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve month period ending September 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve month period was 17.43 percent, showing a 0.60 percent increase compared to 16.83 percent recorded in September 2021.
The food inflation rate in September 2022 was 23.34 percent on a year-on-year basis; which was 3.77 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2021 (19.57%).
The NBS explained that the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, food products like potatoes, yam, and other tuber, oil, and fat.
On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in September was 1.43 percent; this was a 0.54 percent fall compared to the rate recorded in August 2022 (1.98%).
This decline was attributed to a reduction in prices of some food items like Tubers, Palm oil, Maize, Beans, and Vegetables.
The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-month period ending September 2022 over the previous twelve-month average was 19.36 percent, which was a decline of 1.35 percent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in September 2021 (20.71%).
Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kwara (33.09%), Kogi (28.46%), and Ebonyi (27.41%), while Kaduna (18.84%), Jigawa (19.20%) and Sokoto (19.44%) recorded the slowest rise on year-on-year food inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, however, September 2022 food inflation was highest in Enugu (2.61%), Ogun (2.50%), and Oyo (2.43%), while Sokoto (-0.88%), Ondo (0.38%) and Niger (0.62%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.
All items inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (23.82%), Rivers (23.49%), Benue (22.78%), while Abuja (17.87%), Borno (18.12%), and Adamawa (18.42%) recorded the slowest rise in headline Year-on-Year inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, however, September 2022 recorded the highest increases in Jigawa (2.58%), Yobe (2.22%), Benue (2.05%), while Abuja (-0.72%), Sokoto (-0.19%) and Adamawa (0.25%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.
