Jude Diugwu
Steady rise in prices of food commodities such as yam, cereals,bread; potatoes amongst others accounted for slight push up in Consumer Price Index ( CPI) settling at 21.91% in February compared to January Inflation figure of 21.82%.
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirmed the figure on Wednesday in the latest CPI report for February.
Latest inflation figure showed an increase of 0.09% points when compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate.
On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.21% points higher compared to the rate recorded in February 2022, which was 15.70%.
This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in February 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2022).
The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are presented, thus: Bread and Cereal (21.67%), Actual and Imputed Rent (7.74%), Potatoes, Yam and Other Tubers (6.06%), Vegetable (5.44%) and Meat (4.78%).
On a month-on-month basis, the percentage change in the All-Items Index in February 2023 was 1.71%, which was 0.16% points lower than the rate recorded in January 2023 (1.87%). This means that in February 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.16% lower relative to January 2023.
