.As the nation’s inflation rises to 22.22%
Nigeria has reportedly lost its place as Africa’s top crude producer to Angola following a decline in output.
TRUMPET learned that this was revealed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, in its April 2023 monthly oil market report.
OPEC said crude production from its 13 member countries averaged 28.60 million barrels per day during the period under review, down 191,000 barrels per day month-on-month.
It stated that crude oil production rose mainly in Saudi Arabia, Angola and Iran, while production fell in Iraq and Nigeria.
The report indicated that Angola recorded 1.06 million barrels per day of crude oil production in April 2023.
Meanwhile, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, the country’s crude oil production fell to 998,602 bpd in April 2023, representing a 21.26 percent reduction compared to March.
Nigeria’s April crude production volume was the lowest in seven months.
August and September of last year was the last time crude oil production appreciated.
The government and stakeholders had attributed the drop to an increase in oil theft in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s April inflation figure rose to 22.22% on Monday from 22.04% last month.
The Office for National Statistics’ Consumer Price Index report released on Monday revealed this.
The data represented a 0.18% increase over April’s inflation figure.
In month-on-month terms, the All-Items index in April 2023 was 1.91%, 0.05% higher than the rate recorded in March 2023 (1.86%). This means that in April 2023, on average, the overall price level was 0.05% higher than in March 2023.
Nigeria’s inflation rate continues its upward trend despite multiple interest rate hikes by the central bank to control the rate hike. The CBN has increased the monetary policy rate (MPR) from 11.5% to 18% between May last year and March 2023.
The food inflation rate in April 2023 was 24.61% year-on-year, 6.24% higher than the rate recorded in April 2022 (18.37%) and 24.35% recorded the previous month.
The annual increase in food inflation was caused by rising prices of oil and fats, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yams and other tubers, fruits, meat, vegetables and alcoholic beverages.
Core inflation “All items except agricultural products”, which excludes prices of volatile agricultural products, stood at 20.14% in April 2023 in year-on-year terms. It shows that it was up 5.96% from the 14.18% recorded in April 2022. It is also higher than the 19.86% recorded in March 2023.
The largest increases were recorded in the prices of gas, air transport, liquid fuel, vehicle parts, fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment, medical services and road transport.
The contributions of divisional level matches to the increase in the holder index are; food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.51%), domestic water, electricity, gas and other fuels (3.72%), clothing and footwear (1.7%) and transport (1.45%).
During the month under review, the rate of inflation for all items (year-on-year) was highest in Bayelsa (26.14%), Kogi (25.57%) and Rivers (24.95%). On the other hand, Borno (19.06%), Taraba (19.64%) and Sokoto (19.90%) recorded the slowest increase in overall year-on-year inflation.
Month-on-month, however, April 2023 recorded the highest increases in Cross River (3.05%), Bayelsa (2.92%), Rivers (2.62%), while Katsina (0.52 %), Jigawa (0.74%) and Osun (0.96%) recorded the slowest increase.
In terms of year-on-year food inflation, it was highest in Kogi (29.50%), Kwara (29.48%) and Bayelsa (29.38%), while Sokoto (19.55%), Taraba (20.20%) and Jigawa (20.68%) recorded the slowest increase.
The continued rise in inflation means that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s measures have yet to yield results.
It means that Nigeria would continue to pay more for the prices of goods, leading to a fall in the purchasing power of Nigerians.
