Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 21.91 percent in February 2023 from 21.82 percent of January 2023, report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday has shown.
The inflation rate for February is also the highest in seventeen years
The bureau, in its report titled ‘Consumer Price Index (February 2023)’, also disclosed that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.21 percent points higher, compared to the rate recorded in February 2022, which was 15.70 percent.
The report comes as the country attempts to bounce back from months of naira scarcity occasioned by the botched naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) first announced on October 26, 2022.
“In February 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 21.91% compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate which was 21.82%,” it stated.
“Looking at the trend, the February 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.09% points when compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate.”
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in February 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2022),” the report stated.
“The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are presented, thus: Bread and Cereal (21.67%), Actual and Imputed Rent (7.74%), Potatoes, Yam and Other Tubers (6.06%), Vegetable (5.44%) and Meat (4.78%).”
The NBS noted that on a month-on-month basis, the percentage change in the All-Items Index in February 2023 was 1.71 percent, which was 0.16 percent points lower than the rate recorded in January 2023 (1.87 percent).
“This means that in February 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.16% percent lower relative to January 2023.
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending February 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 19.87%, showing a 3.15% points increase compared to 16.73% recorded in February 2022. The increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the headline index