…Highest in 4 years
Chidi Ogbuokiri
Nigeria’s food inflation increased by 1.26 per cent on a year-on-year basis from 18.30 per cent in November 2020 to 19.56 per cent in December, according to the National Bureau of Statistics December 2020 consumer price index/inflation report released at the weekend.
The stated that this is the biggest jump in food inflation since May 2016 when it rose from 13.19 per cent in April of that year to 14.86 per cent.
The NBS said the increase in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fruits, vegetable, fish and oils and fats
According to the report, the all items index which measures inflation increased from 14.87 per cent in November to 15.75 per cent.
This represents an increase of 0.86 percentage points.
“The urban inflation rate increased by 16.33 per cent (year-on-year) in December 2020 from 15.47 per cent recorded in November 2020, while the rural inflation rate increased by 15.20 per cent in December 2020 from 14.33 per cent in November 2020,” the report read.
“Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 11.37 per cent in December 2020, up by 0.32 per cent when compared with 11.05 per cent recorded in November 2020.”
In December, all items inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Bauchi (19.85 per cent), Edo (18.15 per cent) and Kogi (18.40 per cent), while Lagos (14.05 percent), Kwara (13.91 per cent) and Abia (13.30 per cent) recorded the slowest rise.
