AS Nigeria’s unemployment rate continues to rise, the country’s inflation rate has jumped to 12.82 per cent (year-on-year) in July 2020, indicating the highest level in 27 months, Consumer Price Index (CPI) of July 2020 has shown.

Inflation in Nigeria has consistently been on the increase for 11-months, rising from 11.02 per cent in August 2019 to 12.82% in July 2020, the report released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday shows.

The report also revealed that food inflation increased to 15.48 per cent in July from 15.18 per cent in June.

According to the report, increases were recorded in the 12 Classification of Individual Consumption According by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.

The COICOP includes food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic, and beverages, tobacco, and kola, clothing and footwear, housing, water, electricity, and gas; furnishings and household equipment.

Others are health, transport, communication, recreation and culture, education, restaurants and hotels, miscellaneous goods and services.

In the report, the NBS indicates that food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fruits, oils and fats, and fish.

The NBS reported last Friday in its ‘Labour Force Statistics: Unemployment and Underemployment Report’ that about 21.7 million Nigerians are currently unemployed.

The report indicates that the country’s unemployment rate within 18 months, rose to 27.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020 from 23.1 percent recorded in the third quarter of 2018.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in March said the inflation level would rise in the next six months due to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic, but it is expected to fall in the next 12 months.

Inflation in states

In July 2020, all items inflation on year on year basis was highest in Bauchi standing at 16.1 per cent, Kogi-15.9 per cent, and Sokoto and Plateau -15.2 per cent, while Lagos 10.7 per cent, Adamawa 10.6 per cent and Kwara with 10.5 per cent recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.

For food inflation, Kogi recorded 20.09 per cent, Sokoto- 19.28 per cent, and Plateau – 17.13 per cent recorded the highest, while Adamawa- 13.37 per cent, Abia- 13.33 per cent, and Lagos- 13.13 per cent recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.