Nigeria’s inflation rate rose higher in the month of February as prices of goods and services continue to increase across key sectors, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed in its latest report.
Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation rate, increase to 15.70% year-on-year in the month under review, higher than the 15.60% filed in the month of January 2022 but slower than 17.33% recorded in the same month of 2021. On a monthly basis, inflation rose to 1.63% in February 2022 from 1.47% in January 2022.
Prices of goods and services have been on the rise in Africa’s largest economy in the last few months, partly due to the persistent forex scarcity and growing economic uncertainties amid the drop in key economic fundamentals.
The composite food sub-index also increased to 17.11%, according to the report. Increase in the food index was caused by jump in prices of Bread and cereals, Food product n.e.c, Potatoes, yam and other tuber, Oils and fats and fruit.
On monthly basis, the food sub-index increased to 1.87 percent in February 2022, up by 0.25 percent points from 1.62 percent recorded in January 2022.
The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending February 2022 over the previous twelve-month average was 19.69 percent, 0.40 percent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in January 2022 (20.09) percent.
Rising cost of importation, fuel scarcity, forex scarcity and insecurity that prevented farmers from cultivating their farms or even harvest in some cases are some of the factors responsible for the increase in the cost of food items.
Other factors are the unfriendly business environment that made doing business in Africa’s largest economy hard. The entire nation was thrown into darkness because of the collapse of the power grid at a period when there is fuel scarcity. Some fuel stations are now selling at N210 per litre while others are selling at N220.
All these extra costs are added to a unit product.
