By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s inflation rate decelerated for a 14th consecutive month in March to 13.34 percent (year-on-year), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) latest report.

“This fourteenth consecutive disinflation since January 2017 is 0.99 percent points less than the rate recorded in February 2018 (14.33) percent,” the NBS affirmed.

The NBS reports that their were Increases recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yield the Headline Index.

On a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.84 percent in March 2018, up by 0.05 percent points from the rate recorded in February.

According to the report, the percentage change in the average composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the twelve month period ending March 2018 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve month period was 15.60 percent, showing 0.33 percent point lower from 15.93 percent recorded in February 2018.

The Urban inflation rate eased by 13.75 percent (year-on-year) in March 2018 from 14.76 percent recorded in February, while the Rural inflation rate also eased by 12.99 percent in March 2018 from 13.96 percent in February.

On month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.86 percent in March 2018, up by 0.04 from 0.82 percent recorded in February, while the rural index also rose by 0.82 percent in March 2018, up by 0.05 from 0.77 percent recorded in February.

The corresponding twelve month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 15.87 percent in March 2018. This is less than 16.24 percent reported in February, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in March 2018 is 15.34 percent compared to 15.64 percent recorded in February.

Food inflation rose by 16.08 percent year-on-year in the review period, lower than the 17.59 percent year-on-year recorded in February.

“Core inflation was 11.2 percent y/y in March compared to 11.7 percent in February. Similar to the observed trend in the previous month, the highest increases were reported in the prices of fuel and lubricants for personal transport and transport equipment, vehicle spare parts, narcotics, clearing, hospital services, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment, repair and hire of clothing, and passenger travel by air. On a m/m basis however, the core index increased at a faster pace of 0.84 percent, 9 bps above the 0.75 percent reported in February,” according to Cordros analysts.

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