Abuja, May 15, 2023 – Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 22.22 percent in April 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported.
The headline inflation rate was 22.04 percent in March 2023.
The NBS gave the statistics in its monthly report released in Abuja on Monday.
The rate is the highest inflation rate in the country in the last 17 years.
Headline inflation measures the total price changes of a basket of goods and services in an economy over a period.
“In April 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 22.22 percent relative to March 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 22.04 percent.
“Looking at the movement, the April 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.18 percent points when compared to March 2023 headline inflation rate.
“Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.40 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2022, which was 16.82 percent.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate on a year-on-year basis increased in April 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., April 2022)”
The NBS indicated that increases were recorded in prices of gas, air transport, liquid fuel, vehicle spare parts, medical services, and road transportation.
A breakdown of the report indicates that the food inflation rate in April 2023 stood at 24.61 per cent and increased by 0.26 per cent in march 2023.
When compared on a year-on-year basis, an increase of 6.24 per cent was seen against the 18.37 per cent rate recorded in April 2022.
The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis is attributed to the constant hike in prices of, Meat, vegetables, oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yam amongst others.
Other factors that contributed to the April inflation according to NBS are food and non-alcoholic beverages recorded to be 11.51 per cent, housing water, electricity, gas, and other fuel at 3.72 per cent, clothing and footwear 1.7 per cent, and transport which stood at 1.45 per cent. (GBN)
