NBS: Inflation Rate Rises To 21.91%

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the country’s headline inflation rate rose to 21.91 percent in February 2023 compared to 21.82 percent of January 2023, indicating an increase of 0.09 percent points.

The bureau stated this in its report titled ‘Consumer Price Index (February 2023)’ made available to Channels Television on Wednesday.

The report comes as the country attempts to bounce back from months of naira scarcity occasioned by the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) first announced on October 26, 2022.

The CBN launched the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes in November 2022 in a bid to tackle cash hoarding and vote-buying ahead of the 2023 general elections. The extended deadline of February 10 was enforced amid a Supreme Court ruling allowing the validity of the old notes.

“In February 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 21.91% compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate which was 21.82%,” it stated.

“Looking at the trend, the February 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.09% points when compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate.”

Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.21 percent points higher, compared to the rate recorded in February 2022, which was 15.70 percent.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in February 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2022),” the report stated.

“The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are presented, thus: Bread and Cereal (21.67%), Actual and Imputed Rent (7.74%), Potatoes, Yam and Other Tubers (6.06%), Vegetable (5.44%) and Meat (4.78%).”

The NBS noted that on a month-on-month basis, the percentage change in the All-Items Index in February 2023 was 1.71 percent, which was 0.16 percent points lower than the rate recorded in January 2023 (1.87 percent). “This means that in February 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.16% percent lower relative to January 2023.