For the 10th consecutive month in 2023, Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 27.33 per cent in October – the highest rate recorded since August 2005.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, the inflation rate rose by 0.61 per cent from 26.72 per cent recorded in September 2023.
Then NBS said, “On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.24 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022, which was (21.09 per cent). This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in October 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year.”
ANN reports that this is the third time in the last decade (2014-2023) that the inflation rate would rise consecutively for ten months.
This organisation reported the rising inflation impacts on the snowballing cost of goods in the local market. This is coming despite the effort by the federal government to cushion the impact of subsidy by releasing several palliative schemes.
The NBS data also showed that the food inflation rate in October 2023 stood at 31.52 per cent higher than the 30.64 per cent recorded in September 2023. The rise in food inflation, according to NBS, was caused by increases in bread, cereals, oil, and fat prices.
It also attributed leaps in the prices of potatoes, yams, other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables, milk, cheese, and eggs to food inflation.
Accordingly, the prevailing high inflation in Nigeria is eroding the value of money, which may likely reduce investment and the real gross domestic project (GDP) growth rate in the country while commodity prices shift upward in the market.
Economic analysts, worried by this trend, told The ICIR that the government needed to take some bold steps to address the rising inflation impact on the economy, especially now the festive season is close.
“The inflation trend is not surprising because the factors that push it up haven’t normalised. You see a spike in energy costs – fuel, diesel, aviation fuel and cost of funds still very high from commercial banks,” former Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, told The ICIR.
He suggested to the government to prune down inflation through domestic refining, which would lessen petrol and diesel prices by extension, transport costs, reduction of import duty, and also lessen the cost of funds to enable the survival of businesses.
