By Halimah Olamide
Nigeria’s economy worsened on Monday as the National Bureau of Statistics said inflation has worsened with its increase to 28.92 percent.
The NBS, in its latest release on Monday said compared with November figures where inflation stood at 28.20%, the inflation jumped by 0.72% in December 2023. On its year on year basis, NBS said December 2023 inflation rate was higher than that of 2022 by 7.58%.
On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 7.58% points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2022, which was 21.34%. This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in December 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2022).
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.29%, which was 0.20% higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.09%).
“This means that in December 2023, the rate of increase in the average price level is more than the rate of increase in the average price level in November 2023,” NBS stated.
In its breakdown of the inflation trend, NBS said the Food inflation rate in December 2023 was 33.93% on a year-on-year basis, adding this was10.18% points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2022 (23.75%).
“The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Oil and fat, Potatoes, Yam and other Tubers, Fish, Meat, Fruit, Milk, Cheese, and Egg.”
It added that on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.72%, this was 0.30% higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.42%).
“The rise in Food inflation on a Month-on-Month basis was caused by a rise in the rate of increase in
the average prices of Oil and fat, Meat, Bread and Cereals, Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers, Fish and Milk, Cheese, and Egg.
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending December 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 27.96%, which was a 7.02% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in December 2022 (20.94%).”