The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that Nigeria’s headline inflation for the month of May dropped to 17.93 percent.
The NBS said in its monthly report on its website of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation that the figure was 0.19 percent points lower than the 18.12 percent recorded in April.
According to the NBS, this is the second consecutive month that the inflation rate dropped, but added the prices of food have continued to surge.
The report explained that despite the drop in inflation in May, increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.
It added that on a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.01 percent in May, representing higher percentage points of 0.04 than the rate recorded in April (0.97 percent).
“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending May 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 15.50 percent, showing a 0.46 percent point rise from 15.04 percent recorded in April 2021,” the report said.
According to the report, the urban inflation rate rose to 18.51 percent (year-on-year) in May from 18.68 percent recorded in April, just as the rural inflation rate stood at 17.36 percent in May from the 17.57 percent previously reported.
The urban index rose to 1.04 percent in May – up by 0.05 percent points (on a month-on-month basis) – compared to the rate recorded in April (0.99 percent), while the rural index rose to 0.98 percent in May – up by 0.03 points – compared to the 0.95 percent recorded in April.
According to the report, the corresponding 12-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 16.09 percent in May – higher than the 15.63 percent reported in April while the corresponding rural inflation rate in May is 14.94 percent compared to the 14.48 percent recorded in the previous month.
The report added that composite food index rose by 22.28 percent in May as against the 22.72 percent reported in April and that the rise was due to increases in prices of bread, cereals, milk, cheese, eggs, fish, soft drinks, coffee, tea and cocoa, fruits, meat, oils and fats, and vegetables.
It explained that the food sub-index increased by 1.05 percent in May from the 0.99 percent recorded in April, on a month-on-month basis.
“The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the 12-month period ending May 2021 over the previous 12-month average was 19.18 percent, 0.60 percent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in April (18.58) percent,” the report added.
GIK/APA