Nigeria’s inflation touched its two-year high of 12.34% in April, the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown.
The report showed propelled rise in food prices as Africa’s biggest economy grappled with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak with people adjusting to the vagaries of living under the lockdown.
Costs of living became higher by 0.08% when set beside the preceding month’s figure, which was 12.26%.
Food Index, the core component of the Consumer Price Index, which measures cost shifts and patterns in a basket of 740 goods and services, heightened from 14.98% in March to 15.03%.
Upward developments in the prices of yam, potatoes and other tubers, bread and cereals, fish, oil and fats, meat fruits and vegetables lifted the food index higher.
For over four years, Inflation has resisted the central bank’s wisdom to contain it and bring it below a two-digit figure inside a band of between 6 and 9%, the most recent being the apex bank’s decision, levying banks N1.4 trillion in April in order to mop up excess liquidity from the framework and shore up the Naira.
The urban inflation rate stood at 13.01% in April, compared to the 12.93% reported in March. The rural inflation figure jumped from 11.64 to 11.73%.
Across the states, Sokoto posted the most noteworthy inflation rate at 17.88% while inflation was lowest in Bayelsa, Ebonyi and Enugu, which recorded negative inflation or falling in the costs of food within the period.
