NBS puts Nigeria’s inflation at 11.08% in July

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said the country’s inflation measured by Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 11.08 per cent (year-on-year) in July 2019.

According to NBS, this is 0.14 per cent lower than the rate recorded in June (11.22 per cent).

The NBS said this in its “CPI and Inflation Report’’ released on Friday in Abuja.

The report said composite food index rose by 13.39 per cent in July compared to 13.56 per cent in June.

According to it, the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of oils and fats, meat, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers and fish.

“On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.26 per cent in July, down by 0.10 per cent points from 1.36 per cent recorded in June 2019.”

It said that the average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending July over the previous twelve-month average was 13.46 per cent, 0.04 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in June (13.42) per cent.

The bureau also said that increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline index.

“On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.01 per cent in July 2019.

“This is 0.06 per cent rate lower than the rate recorded in June 2019 (1.07) per cent.

“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending July over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 11.29 per cent, compared to 11.29 per cent recorded in June.”

The report also said that the urban inflation rate increased by 11.43 per cent (year-on-year) in July from 11.61 per cent recorded in June, while the rural inflation rate increased by 10.64 per cent in July from 10.87 per cent in June.

On month-on-month basis, the bureau said the urban index rose by 1.07 per cent in July, down by 0.03 from 1.10 per cent recorded in June.

It added that rural index also rose by 0.96 per cent in July, down by 0.09 from the rate recorded in June (1.05) per cent.

The NBS added that the corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index was 11.64 per cent in July.

“This is less than 11.65 per cent reported in June, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in July is 10.97 per cent compared to 10.99 per cent recorded in June.”

The CPI measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.

The construction of the CPI combines economic theory, sampling and other statistical techniques using data from other surveys to produce a weighted measure of average price changes in the Nigerian economy.

The weighting occurs to capture the importance of the selected commodities in the entire index.