Nigeria’s inflation rate rises again

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 33.95 per cent in May from 33.69 per cent in April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday.

The statistics office said the May 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.26 per cent points when compared to the April 2024 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the NBS said, the headline inflation rate was 11.54 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023, which was 22.41 per cent.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in the month of May 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., May 2023),” it said.

Meanwhile, the bureau said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in May was 2.14 per cent, which was 0.15 per cent lower than the rate recorded in April (2.29 per cent).

This, it said, means that in the month of May, the rate of increase in the average price level is less than the rate of increase in the average price level in April.

According to the report, the food inflation rate in May quickened to 40.66 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 15.84 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023 (24.82 per cent).

More details later…..