The CPI measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.
“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 (i.e., October 2022).”
The NBS boss said the increase in the headline index for October 2023 was attributed to the increase in some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level.
According to him, “These increases were observed in Food and non-alcoholic Beverages (14.16%), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & other Fuel (4.57%), Clothing and footwear (2.09%), Transport (1.78%), Furnishings & Household Equipment and maintenance (1.37%), Education (1.08%) and Health (0.82%). Others are Miscellaneous Goods & Services (0.45%), Restaurants & Hotels (0.33%), Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco & Kola (0.30%), Recreation & Culture (0.19%) and Communication (0.19%).”
He, however, said that on a month-over-month basis, the headline inflation rate in October 2023 stood at 1.73%, which shows that the rate of increase in the average price level was less than that of the preceding month by 0.37% when compared to the rate recorded in September 2023 (2.10%).
He said the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending October 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous corresponding twelve-month period was 23.44%, showing a 5.57% increase compared to 17.86% recorded in October 2022.
Adeniran noted that the Food sub-index for October 2023 increased to 31.52% on a year-on-year basis, which was 7.80% points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022 (23.72%).
The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis, he said, was attributed to increases in prices of Bread & cereals, Oil & fat, Potatoes, Yam & other Tubers, Fish, Fruit, Meat, Vegetables and Milk, Cheese, and Eggs
The NBS boss said, on a month-on-month basis, “the Food inflation rate in October 2023 was 1.91%. This was 0.54% lower compared to the rate recorded in September 2023 (2.45%).
“The decline in Food inflation was caused by a decrease in the average prices of Fruits, Oil and fat, Coffee, Tea and Cocoa, Bread and Cereals.
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending October 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 26.33%, which was a 6.50% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2022 (19.83%).”
Adeniran said the analyses of the states show that the all-item index for October 2023, on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (34.20%), Rivers (31.44%), Lagos (31.23%), while Borno (20.06%), Jigawa (23.52%) and Sokoto (24.47%) recorded the slowest rise in headline inflation.
He noted that on a month-on-month basis, October 2023 recorded the highest increases in Yobe (3.72%), Jigawa (2.85%), Sokoto (2.84%), while Kogi (1.01%), Edo (1.05%) and Kwara (1.18%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.
State-level analyses of the food index in October 2023, on a year-on-year basis, according to him, showed the highest increases in Kogi (41.74%), Kwara (38.48%) and Lagos (37.37%), while Borno (24.41%), Kebbi (24.90%) and Jigawa (25.10%) recorded the slowest rise.
The NBS boss said on a month-on-month basis, however, in October 2023 Food inflation was highest in Yobe (5.35%), Sokoto (3.68%), and Jigawa (3.45%), while Edo (0.95%), Katsina (1.03%) and Rivers (1.10%) recorded the slowest rise.
According to Adeniran, core inflation, which is all items less volatile farm produces and Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) as communicated in the previous month, the exclusion of the PMS is due to the deregulation of the commodity by the removal of subsidy.
