The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that Nigeria’s headline inflation for the month of April dropped to 18.12 percent in April from 18.17 percent recorded in March this year.
The NBS said in its monthly report on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation on Monday in Abuja that the April figure represented the first time in 20 consecutive months that the inflation rate would decline.
According to the report, food, urban, and rural inflation also dropped, leaving core inflation on the high at 12.74 percent, which rose due to increases in pharmaceutical products and other items.
It explained that increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the Headline index.
“On month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 0.97 percent in April 2021, this is 0.59 percent rate lower than the rate recorded in March 2021 (1.56) percent.
“The percentage change in the average composited CPI for the 12 months period ending April 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 15.04 percent, showing 0.48 percent point from 14.55 percent recorded in March 2021,” the NBS said.
The urban inflation rate, according to the report, increased by 18.68 percent (year-on-year) in April from 18.76 percent recorded in March, while the rural inflation rate rose by 17.57 percent in April from 17.60 percent recorded in March.
On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.99 percent in April 2021, down by 0.61 percent recorded in March 2021 (1.60), while the rural index also rose by 0.95 percent in April 2021, down by 0.57 the rate that was recorded in March 2021 (1.52) percent.
“The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 15.63 percent in April 2021.
“This is higher than 15.15 percent compared to 13.99 percent recorded in March 2021, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in April 2021 is 14.48 percent compared to 13.99 percent recorded in March 2021,” the report said.
Similarly, the composite food index rose by 22.72 percent in April compared to 22.95 percent recorded in the previous month.
The NBS explained that the rise in the food index was a result of the increase in prices of coffee, tea, coca, bread and cereals, soft drinks, milk, cheese and eggs, vegetables, meat, oils and fats, fish and potatoes, yam and other tubers.
The food sub-index also increased on a month-on-month basis by 0.99 percent in April, down by 0.91 percent points from 1.90 percent recorded in March.
GIK/APA