Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Slows to 32.15% in August, Reports NBS

The Bureau’s Consumer Price Index report states that in August 2024, food inflation in Nigeria was 37.52% while the country’s headline inflation rate decreased to 32.15%.

According to the NBS, “the headline inflation rate in August 2024 decreased by 1.25 percentage points compared to the July 2024 rate.”

Nonetheless, compared to August 2023 (25.80%), the headline inflation rate increased by 6.35 percentage points year over year.

The headline inflation rate for August 2024 was 2.22% on a month-over-month basis, which was 0.06 percentage points less than the figure for July 2024 (2.28%). This suggests that the average price level increased at a slower rate in August 2024 compared to July 2024.

According to the NBS, in August 2024, the annual rate of food inflation was 37.52%, which was 8.18 percentage points higher than the rate in August 2023 (29.34%).

Increases in the cost of commodities such bread, maize, grains, guinea corn, cereals, yam, Irish potatoes, water yam, cassava tuber, palm oil, and vegetable oil, among others, were blamed for the rise in food inflation year over year.

The food inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.37% on a month-over-month basis, which represents a 0.10 percentage point decline from July 2024’s rate of 2.47%.

A decreased rate of price increase for products like tobacco, tea, cocoa, coffee, groundnut oil, milk, yam, Irish potatoes, water yam, cassava tuber, and palm oil was the NBS’s explanation for this decline.

The three states with the largest annual increases in food inflation in August 2024 were Sokoto (46.98%), Gombe (43.25%), and Yobe (43.21%). Benue (32.33%), Rivers (33.01%), and Bayelsa (33.36%) had the lowest increases.

Monthly food inflation rates in August 2024 were highest in Adamawa (5.46%), Kebbi (4.48%), and Borno (3.88%), with the weakest increases in Ogun (0.08%), Akwa-Ibom (0.45%), and Sokoto (1.00%).