Breaking: Nigeria’s inflation swells for 10th consecutive month, hits 27.3%

Nigeria’s inflation has risen sharply in October to 27.33 percent from 26.7 percent in the previous month, indicating the 10th consecutive rise this year.

Persecond News reports that this is the highest level of inflation since August 2005, prices of food which is the most relevant in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket picked up to 31.5 percent in October, up from 30.6 percent in the prior month.

The annual core inflation rate which excludes farm produce, rose further to a record 22.7 percent in October, accelerating skyward from September’s  22.1 percent.

Inflation pressure intensified over the recent months due to the government’s elimination of fuel subsidies in May while the Naira continues to slump against other currencies.

A Consumer Price Index (October 2023) released on Wednesday, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated: “In October 2023, the headline inflation rate increased to 27.33 percent relative to the September 2023 headline inflation rate which was 26.72 percent.

“Looking at the movement, the October 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.61 percentage points when compared to the September 2023 headline inflation rate.

“Furthermore, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.24 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022, which was (21.09 per cent).

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