Nigerians are facing increased challenges putting food on the table, with food inflation climbing to 32.84 percent in November. The latest Consumer Price Index report by the National Bureau of Statistics reveals a surge in headline inflation to 28.20 percent from October’s 27.33 percent.
Notably, the cost of food spiked significantly in Kogi, Kwara, and Rivers states, hitting 41.29 percent, 40.72 percent, and 40.22 percent respectively.
Comparing November 2023 to the same month in 2022, food inflation escalated by 8.72 percentage points, reaching 24.13 percent previously.
The report attributes this food price hike to increased costs across various essentials like bread, cereals, oils, potatoes, yams, fish, fruits, meats, vegetables, and coffee, tea, and cocoa.
The NBS said, “On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in November 2023 was 2.42 percent this was 0.51 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2023 (1.91 percent).
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve-months ending November 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 27.09 percent, which was a 6.68 percentage points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in November 2022 (20.41 percent).”
It further noted that food was cheapest in Bauchi (26.14 percent), Borno (27.34 percent), and Jigawa (27.63 percent).
In November, Nigeria’s inflation rate continued its climb to another record 18-year high. According to the country’s statistics body, headline inflation surged by 0.87 percentage points in November to a new record high in almost two decades.
It stated, “In November 2023, the headline inflation rate increased to 28.20 percent relative to October 2023 headline inflation rate which was 27.33 percent. Looking at the movement, the November 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.87 percent points when compared to the October 2023 headline inflation rate.
“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.73 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2022, which was 21.47 percent. This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in November 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., November 2022).”
Largely driven by the surge in the price of food, month-month headline inflation last month was 2.09 percent, which was 0.35 percentage points higher than what was recorded in October (1.73 percent), defeating a recent claim by the Central Bank of Nigeria that inflation is slowing down m-o-m.
Recently, the former apex bank’s Director of the Corporate Communications Department, Isa AbdulMumin, asserted, “Available statistics showed that the first indication of deceleration in prices was recorded in September.
“Further reforms in the money market, which commenced in October, had accelerated easing in prices, as indicated by the substantial drop in month-on-month changes recorded in October.
“Moderation in month-on-month changes in prices observed in the headline, food, and core components of the consumer basket followed reforms in the money market and relative stability in the FX market.”
Inflation was worse in Kogi (33.28 percent), Lagos (32.30 percent), and Rivers (32.25 percent), which had higher rates than the national average and lowest in Borno (22.47 percent), Katsina (24.91 percent), and Plateau (25.53 percent).
The removal of fuel subsidies and the foreign exchange rate unification policy have been blamed for the recent surge in the country’s inflation.
In the December update of its Nigeria Development Update report, the World Bank noted that since May, petrol prices had increased by an average of 163 percent and the naira had depreciated against the US dollar by 41 percent in the official market and by 30 percent in the parallel market.
Those, it said, had combined to push inflation upwards with higher prices of gasoline and other imported goods, fueling the surge.
It noted, “The impact of this inflation is especially hard on the poor and vulnerable. The government has initiated targeted cash transfers to mitigate some of the impact on the most vulnerable households.
“In addition, a holistic approach to reducing inflation, including through tighter fiscal and monetary policies, is also needed.”
The bank highlighted that sluggish growth and rising inflation in the country increased poverty from 40 percent in 2018 to 46 percent in 2023, pushing an additional 24 million people below the national poverty line.
The number of poor in the country rose from 79 million in 2018 to 104 million in 2023.
It, however, noted that in the medium term, the reforms (fuel subsidy and exchange rate unification) would reverse that trend through higher growth and lower inflation, but to a limited extent.
It added that poverty rates would eventually decrease from 46 percent in 2024 to 44 percent in 2026.
The Bretton-Woods institution, however, projected that inflation would fall in 2024 and beyond if monetary policy tightening was accelerated.
Recently, the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, noted that the apex bank intended to focus on inflation and stabilize prices.
