Nigeria’s headline inflation has risen to a 20-year high of 28.2 percent in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed.
The NBS in a report released on Friday said the headline inflation rate increased to 28.20 percent relative to October 2023 headline inflation rate which was 27.33 percent.
The figure is the highest record from data obtained on the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The bank’s data started from 2023.
The NBS said Food inflation rate also increased to 32.84 percent on a year-on-year basis, which was 8.72 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2022 (24.13 percent).
“The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and coffee, tea and cocoa,” it said.
On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in November 2023 was 2.42 percent, 0.51 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2023 (1.91 percent).
It said the rise was caused by the increase in the average prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, meat, coffee, tea and cocoa, potatoes, yam & other tubers.
Also, the “all items less farm produces and energy” or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produces and energy stood at 22.38 percent on a year-on year basis.
“This is up by 4.39 percent when compared to the 17.99 percent recorded in November 2022. The highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by road, medical services, passenger transport by air, actual and imputed rentals for housing, pharmaceutical products, accommodation service etc,” the report added.
