By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE) – Nigeria’s inflation rose 9.2 percent year-on-year in June, 0.2 percentage points from the 9.0 percent rate recorded in May in line with expectations; but above the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) target upper limit, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report June 2015 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Food inflation climbed up by 10.0 percent (year-on-year) in June, up by 0.2 percentage points from 9.8 percent in May. “On a month-on-month basis, the Food Sub-index increased by 1.1 percent, maintaining the high pace of increase recorded in May,” the NBS said.
This comes as a result of irregularity of the supply of fuel in Nigeria which continued to impact food prices. In addition to irregular fuel supply is the late rains and implicitly, “late harvests have failed to weigh on food prices,” NBS added.
The nation’s statistics office says the average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending in June 2015 over the previous twelve month average was 9.5 percent. “The twelve month rate of change has held at the same pace a year,” the report affirmed.
“On a month-on-month basis, the pace of the increase in the Headline index eased, increasing by 0.9 percent in June from 1.1 percent recorded in May with largest increases observed in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Transportation and Miscellaneous Goods and Services Divisions,’ the NBS noted.
According to Nigeria’s statistics office, in June, both the Urban and Rural Price Indices increased at a faster pace relative to May. The Urban index increased by 9.2 percent, up marginally from 9.1 percent in May, while the Rural index increased by 9.1 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than 8.9 percent in May. On a month-on- month basis, both the Urban and Rural indices increased by 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent recorded in May.
NBS reported that the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve month period ending in June over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve-month period was 8.4 percent, marginally higher from the 8.3 percent rate recorded in May.
The report further affirmed that the corresponding 12-month year-on-year average percentage change for the Urban and Rural indices edged higher from May to 8.5 percent and 8.3 percent respectively.
