Inflation drops to 8.4% in June

Nigeria’s inflation rate, which has consistently tumbled in recent months, again dipped to 8.4 percent in June from 9.0 percent, reported in May this year. Read more

A Consumer Price Index Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), indicated this was 0.6 percentage points lower than the 9.0 percent rate recorded in May. Also compared with January this year, rates continue to trend lower across all three indices including the headline, as well as the core and food sub-indices when they were recorded at 9.0 percent, 11.3 percent and 10.1 percent respectively.

The report also noted that lower rates are further reflected in average rates over the first half of this year.

“During the period, the headline, core and food indices averaged 8.9 percent, 8.0 percent and 9.9 percent respectively. This is lower than the average over the same period last year, which were recorded at 12.5 percent 14.1 percent and 11.8 percent respectively. Relative to May, the slower rise in the headline index could be attributable to slower rises in all classification of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) classes (except the food and non-alcoholic beverages class). This resulted in the muted rise of the core sub-index as well. On the other hand, food prices increased at a faster rate compared to May as the country is deep into the planting season. Food supplies continue to be tight as inventories decline, creating upward pressure on prices,” the report said.

Recall that the headline index is made up of the core index and farm produce items. As processed foods are included in both the core and food sub-indices, this implies that these sub-indices are not mutually exclusive.

On a month-on basis, increases in price levels in the headline index moved roughly at the same pace in June as recorded in May while the composite CPI increased by 0.59 percent in June, down by 0.09 percentage points from 0.67 percent recorded in May.

“The urban composite CPI was recorded at 145.5 points in June, revealing an 8.4 percent year-on-year change. This was a percentage point lower than the 9.4 percent recorded in May. The corresponding rural national CPI recorded an 8.3 percent year-on-year change, lower from the 8.6 percent recorded in May by 0.3 percentage points.

On a month-on-month basis, the urban all-item index picked up slightly from the previous month’s rate of change by increasing by 0.7 percent (compared to the 0.6 percent recorded in May), while the rural all-items index increased by roughly the same rate as in May by 0.5 percent.

Culled from Sun newspaper