Follow Us on Google
•Surges to 39.93%, threatens Christmas celebration
From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Food inflation in Nigeria has reached an all-time high, surging to 39.93% and fuelling concerns over the affordability of essential goods and threatening the nation’s upcoming Christmas and new year celebrations.
The Statistician General of the Federation (SG), Adeyemi Adeniran, on Monday, revealed that headline inflation for November 2024 surged to 34.60 percent relative to the October 2024 headline inflation (33.88 percent) because of the rise in food inflation. The figures are contained in the SG’s statement on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November 2024.
According to him, looking at the headline trend, the November 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72 percentage points compared to the October 2024 headline inflation rate. Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.40 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2023 (28.20 percent).
Citing the 2024 November CPI survey, Adeniran remarked that the increase in the headline index for November 2024 was attributed to the rise in the average price of some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level. “These increases were observed in food and non-alcoholic beverages (17.92 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel (5.79 percent); clothing & footwear (2.65 percent); transport (2.25 percent); furnishings & household equipment & maintenance (1.74 percent); education (1.36 percent); and health (1.04 percent). Also, miscellaneous goods & services (0.58 percent); restaurants & hotels (0.42 percent); alcoholic beverages, tobacco & kola (0.38 percent); recreation & culture (0.24 percent); and communication (0.24 percent),” he said.
Other News
Contrarily, he said, on a month-over-month basis, the headline inflation rate in November 2024 also rose to 2.638 percent, which was 0.002 percent marginally lower than the rate recorded in October 2024 (2.640 percent).
“This means that in November 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is slightly lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in October 2024. The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending November 2024 over the average for the previous twelve-month period was 32.77 percent, showing an 8.76 percent increase compared to 24.01 percent recorded in November 2023.”
“The food inflation rate in November 2024 was 39.93 percent on a year-on-year basis, 7.08 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2023 (32.84 percent). The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items: yam, water yam, coco yam, etc. (potatoes, yam & other tubers class), guinea corn, maize grains, rice, etc. (bread and cereals class), beer, pinto (tobacco class), and palm oil, vegetable oil, etc. (oil and fats class).”
“Likewise, on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in November 2024 was 2.98 percent, which shows a 0.05 percent increase compared to the rate recorded in October 2024 (2.94 percent). The rise can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of mudfish, catfish dried, dried fish sardine, etc. (fish class), rice, yam flour, millet whole grain, corn flour, etc. (bread and cereals class), agricultural eggs, powdered milk, fresh milk, etc. (milk, cheese, and eggs class), and dried beef, goat meat, frozen chicken, etc. (meat class).”
“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending November 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 38.67 percent, which was 11.58 percentage points lower compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in November 2023 (27.09 percent),” the SG said.
