By Deborah Hassan
Rising food prices continue to soar as Nigeria’s inflation rate has maintained a steady rise for the 15th month in a row with the recent disclosure of 14.89% for November 2020.
Nigeria’s inflation stood at 14.23% in October.
A report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday revealed that food inflation which was 17.38 in October rose to 18.30% in November, while core inflation declined to 11.05%.
The statistics office attributes the rise in the food index to increases in prices of major food commodities including potatoes, yam, and other tubers, as well as fruits and vegetables.
The report showed that Urban inflation was up to 15.47% while rural inflation was at 14.33% also in the month of November.
“The urban inflation rate increased by 15.47 percent (year-on-year) in November 2020 from 14.81 percent recorded in October 2020, while the rural inflation rate increased by 14.33 percent in November 2020 from 13.68 percent in October 2020,” the report noted.
“Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 11.05 percent in November 2020, down by 0.09 percent when compared with 11.14 percent recorded in October 2020.
“The highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by air, medical services, hospital services, repair of furniture, passenger transport by road, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment, vehicle spare parts, hairdressing salons, and personal grooming establishments, pharmaceutical products, paramedical services, and motor cars,” NBS noted in the report.
A breakdown of food inflation showed that Kogi was the highest with 24.00 percent; Sokoto and Zamfara (20.60%); Ebonyi (20.20 percent), while Abia (16.20 percent), Bauchi (15.60 percent) and Gombe and Nasarawa (15.00 percent) recorded the slowest rise.
The latest inflation figure comes as a direct impact of increment in the price of PMS and electricity tariffs.