Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 27.33% in September 2023, up from 26.72% in September 2023. In October 2023, the headline inflation rate increased by 0.61% points when compared to the September 2022 number.
Nairametrics reported that compared to October 2022 when the rate was recorded as 21.09%, the headline inflation rate was 6.24% points higher year over year. This shows that in October 2023, the headline inflation rate increased as compared to the same month in 2022.
Food inflation increased to 1.52% annually, indicating that it is still the main cause of inflation. When compared to the rate recorded in October 2022 (23.72%), this indicates an increase of 7.80% points.
Price increases in a number of categories, such as bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables, milk, cheese, and eggs, were the main causes of food inflation.
Food inflation by state showed that, at 41.74 percent, Kogi state had the highest food prices, followed by Lagos (37.37%) and Kwara (38.48%).
Conversely, Borno (24.41%), Kebbi (24.90%), and Jigawa (25.10%) saw the least annual increases in food inflation.
Core inflation, excluding the prices of volatile agricultural products and energy, reached 22.58% in October 2023 on a year-on-year basis. This reflects a 5.12% increase compared to the 17.46% recorded in October 2022.
The prices of medical services, pharmaceuticals, actual and imputed home rentals, passenger transit by air and road transport were found to have had the largest price rises.
October 2023 had a notable 7.66% increase in the Urban inflation rate from 21.63% in October 2022 to 29.29% in October 2023, year over year.
The Urban inflation rate for October 2023 was 1.81% on a month-over-month basis, which was 0.43% lower than September 2023’s rate of 2.24%.
The rural inflation rate increased by 5.01% from 20.57% in October 2022 to 25.58% in October 2023. This represents a significant increase.
The rural inflation rate for October 2023 was 1.67% on a month-over-month basis, which is a drop of 0.29% points as compared to September 2023 (1.96%).
