Nigeria’s Headline Inflation Rate Crashes to 16.05% in October

Nigeria’s Headline Inflation Rate Crashes to 16.05% in October

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate crashed to 16.05% year on year in October, according to the consumer price index (CPI) report released by the statistics office.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), headline inflation eased sharply to 16.05% year on year in October, down from 18.02% year on year in September.

Both food and core inflation moderated, down by 375 bps and 84 bps to 13.1% year on year and 18.7% year on year, respectively. However, on a month-on-month basis, consumer prices increased by 21 bps to 0.93% compared with a +0.72% uptick in the previous month.

Food inflation decreased by 375 bps to 13.12% year on year in October as against 16.87% year on year in Sept. On a month-on-month basis, the food index declined at a slower pace by 0.37%.

This has been attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices of Onions (Fresh), Fruits (Oranges, Pineapple), Shrimp, Groundnuts (Unshelled), Vegetables (Ugu, Okazi leaf), and Meat (Goat meat, Cow tail, Liver), etc.

Elsewhere, core inflation – all items excluding farm produce and energy- eased by 84 bps to 18.69% year on year in October versus 19.53% year on year in Sept. On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation steadied at 1.42% month on month.

On states’ profile analysis, the report showed that in October, the all-items index inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Ekiti at 20.14 per cent, followed by Nassarawa at 18.97 per cent and Zamfara at 18.81 per cent.

It said the slowest rise in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis was recorded in Bauchi at 9.99 per cent, followed by Anambra at 11.72 per cent, and Gombe at 11.73 per cent.

The report, however, said that in October, the inflation rate on a month-on-month basis was highest in Niger at 4.90  per cent, followed by Anambra at 4.90 per cent, and Enugu at 4.75 per cent.

“Edo at -4.00 per cent, followed by Katsina at -3.26 per cent and Adamawa at -3.10  per cent recorded the slowest rise in month-on-month inflation.”

The report said on a year-on-year basis, food inflation was highest in Ogun at 20.85 per cent, followed by Nassarawa at 19.96 per cent, and Ekiti at 19.70 per cent.

“Akwa Ibom at 3.98 per cent, followed by Katsina at 4.15  per cent and Yobe at 4.29 per cent recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.’’

The report, however, said on a month-on-month basis, food inflation was highest in Bauchi at 6.77  per cent, followed by Abuja at 5.11 per cent, and Niger at 4.84  per cent.

“Katsina at -7.72 per cent, followed by Oyo at  -5.89 per cent and Taraba at -4.89  per cent, recorded the slowest rise in inflation on a month-on-month basis.”

The NBS said that based on the recent rebasing of the CPI, it rose to 128.9 in October, which reflected a 1.2 percentage  point increase from the 127.7 recorded in September. Zenith Bank Edge Higher as Foreign Investors Take Positions