New Telegraph

NBS: Food items, essential services’ prices push inflation to 16.47%

The consumer price index (CPI) which measures inflation continued its upward trend in January, hitting 16.47 per cent (year-on-year) against December 2020 figure of 15.75 per cent. National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’s Inflation Data released yesterday said the increase represents 0.71 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in December 2020 (15.75 per cent).

Inflation figure has been on consistent rise in the past 15 months. Prices of foodstuff, services and other essential commodities have been on steady rise since last year. January figure reflected increases in all divisions that yielded the headline index. On food component index, rise in prices were recorded in bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers. In addition, meat, fruits, vegetable, fish and oils and fats recorded increase.

“On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.83 per cent in January 2021, down by 0.22 per cent points from 2.05 per cent recorded in December 2020. “On month-on-month basis, headline index increased by 1.49 per cent in January 2021.

This is 0.12 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in December 2020 (1.61 per cent). The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending January 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 13.62 per cent, representing a 0.37 percentage point increase over 13.25 per cent recorded in December 2020″, NBS explained. Comparing urban inflation to rural inflation, NBS said urban rate increased by 17.03 per cent (year-onyear) in January 2021 from 16.33 per cent recorded in December 2020, while the rural inflation rate increased by 15.92 per cent in January 2021 from 15.20 per cent in December 2020.

On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 1.52 per cent in January 2021, down by 0.13 percentage points when compared to the rate recorded in December 2020, while the rural index also rose by 1.46 per cent in January 2021, down by 0.12 compared to the rate that was recorded in December 2020 (1.58 per cent).

The ”all items less farm produce” or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 11.85 per cent in January 2021, up by 0.48 per cent when compared with 11.37 per cent recorded in December 2020.

“On month-on-month basis, the core sub-index increased by 1.26 per cent in January 2021. This was up by 0.16 per cent when compared with 1.10 per cent recorded in December 2020. “The highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by air, medical services, hospital services, passenger transport by road, pharmaceutical products, paramedical services, repair of furniture, vehicle spare parts, motor cars, miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment,” noted NBS. Similarly, inflation varies state by state going by NBS’ analysis.

In January 2021, all items inflation on year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (21.38%), Oyo (20.17%) and Bauchi (19.52%), while Kwara (13.96%), Abuja (12.96%) and Cross River (12.22%) recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation. On month-on-month basis, however, January 2021 all items inflation was highest in Oyo (4.28%), Ebonyi (3.95%) and Lagos (3.33%), while Abuja, Edo and Cross River recorded price deflation or negative inflation (general decrease in the general price level of food or a negative food inflation rate). On food inflation, on a year-on-year basis, Kogi had highest (26.64%), Oyo (23.69%) and River (23.49%), while Ondo (17.20%), Abuja (16.73%) and Bauchi (16.37%) recorded the slowest rise.

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