Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Rises To 33.88% In October

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 33.88% in October 2024, up from 32.7% in September 2024, reflecting a 1.18 percentage point month-on-month increase.

This was contained in the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Friday.

The Bureau attributed the rise in inflation to increased transportation costs and higher food prices.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.55% points higher than the rate recorded in October 2023 (27.33%).

This indicates that the headline inflation rate increased in October 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year.

On a month-on-month basis, the NBS further noted that the headline inflation rate in October 2024 was 2.64%, which was 0.12% higher than the rate recorded in September 2024 (2.52%).

This means that in October 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in September 2024.

Food inflation
According to the NBS, the food inflation rate in October 2024 was 39.16% on a year-on-year basis, 7.64% points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2023 (31.52%).

The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was attributed to increases in prices of the following items: Guinea Corn, Rice, Maize Grains, Rice, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Water Yam, Coco Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, etc (Oil and Fats Class) and Milo Lipton,
Bourvita, etc (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class).

On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in October 2024 was 2.94% which shows a 0.30% increase compared to the rate recorded in September 2024 (2.64%).

The rise can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of Palm Oil, Vegetable oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class), Mudfish, Croaker (Apo), Fresh fish (Obokun), etc (Fish Class), Dried Beef, Goat Meat, Mutton, Skin meat, etc (Meat Class), and Bread, Guinea Corn flour, Plantain flour, Rice, etc (Bread
and Cereals Class).

The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending October 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 38.12%, which was an 11.79% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2023 (26.33%).