Nigeria’s inflation rate hit 29.90 percent in January 2024, rising from 28.92 percent recorded in December 2023.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed this in its ‘Consumer Price Index, published on Thursday.
The 0.98 increase in inflation rates raises more concerns on Nigeria’s economic performance, as experts expect the Central Bank’s monetary policy committee to sharply raise interest rates at its February 26–27 meeting—iits first in seven months.
“In January 2024, the headline inflation rate increased to 29.90 percent relative to the December 2023 headline inflation rate which was 28.92 percent.
“Looking at the movement, the January 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.98 percent points when compared to the December 2023 headline inflation rate. Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 8.08 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in January 2023, which was 21.82 percent.”
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in January 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., January 2023).
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in January 2024 was 2.64 percent, which was 0.35 percent higher than the rate recorded in December 2023 (2.29 percent).
“This means that in January 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is more than the rate of increase in the average price level in December 2023.” the NBS said in its report.
The soaring prices of foodstuffs have raised lots of concern among Nigerians, as several protests had broken out in different states of the federation.
Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, disclosed in a recent meeting on climate change, food systems, and resource mobilisation that the Federal Government will set up a National Commodity Board to solve the current food crisis the country is facing.
