Despite multiple interest rate hikes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last year to curb rising inflation rate, the country’s inflation rate continues to rise.
The CBN has raised the monetary policy rate (MPR) from 11.5% to 18% between May last year and March 2023.
In April 2023, the All-Items Index increased by 1.91% month-on-month, indicating that the overall price level was 0.05% higher than in March 2023.
Food inflation stood at 24.61% in April 2023, a year-on-year increase of 6.24% from the rate recorded in April 2022 (18.37%) and 24.35% registered the previous month.
The rise in food inflation was caused by rising prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yams and other tubers, fruits, meat, vegetables and liquor .
The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile agricultural commodity prices, was 20.14% in April 2023 in year-on-year terms, up 5.96% from 14.18% recorded in April of 2022. It is also higher than 19.86%. % recorded in March 2023.
The largest price increases were seen in gas, air transport, liquid fuel, vehicle parts, fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment, medical services and road transport.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages division contributed the most to the increase in the owner index, with 11.51%, followed by housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with a 3.72%, clothing and footwear with 1.7% and transport at 1.45%.
