Nigeria’s Inflation jumps to 33.88%

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate surged to 33.88% in October 2024, marking a 1.18% increase from the 32.70% recorded in September 2024.

The NBS disclosed the inflation figure in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report for October, which was released in Abuja on Friday. This figure also shows a 6.55% rise compared to October 2023, when the inflation rate stood at 27.33%.

On a month-on-month basis, the report noted that October’s inflation rate stood at 2.64%, a 0.12% increase from the 2.52% observed in September. “This means that in October 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than in September 2024,” the report stated.

The NBS attributed the rise in the inflation index to price hikes in various goods and services, including food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, clothing, footwear, transport, household maintenance, education, health, and several other categories.

In detail, the food inflation rate in October reached 39.16%, representing a 7.64% increase from the 31.52% recorded in the same month the previous year. The NBS noted that the rise in food inflation was driven by increased prices of staple foods such as guinea corn, rice, maize grains, beans, yam, palm oil, vegetable oil, and several popular food products like Lipton and Milo.

Month-on-month, food inflation rose by 2.94%, an increase of 0.30% compared to the 2.64% recorded in September 2024. This was primarily due to price hikes in items such as palm oil, vegetable oil, various fish species, dried beef, and staple grains like rice and plantain flour.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural products and energy costs, stood at 28.37% in October 2024, a 5.79% rise compared to 22.58% recorded in October 2023. This increase was largely attributed to higher costs in urban services such as bus and motorcycle transport, rental prices, and local restaurant meals.

The NBS also highlighted that the inflation rate in urban areas was 36.38% on a year-on-year basis, while rural inflation reached 31.59%. The month-on-month urban inflation rate was 2.75%, while the rural inflation rate was 2.53%.

State-wise, Bauchi recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate at 46.68%, followed by Kebbi at 40.02% and Sokoto at 39.65%. Conversely, Delta recorded the slowest rise in headline inflation at 27.85%.

Food inflation saw the sharpest rise in Sokoto, with a year-on-year increase of 52.18%, followed by Edo at 46.55% and Borno at 45.85%. Conversely, Kwara, Kogi, and Rivers saw slower food inflation growth.

The NBS concluded by noting that the overall 12-month average inflation rate stood at 32.26% for the period ending October 2024, a significant rise from the 23.44% recorded in the previous year.