THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) latest consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, surged to 20.52 per cent in August 2022, up from 19.64 per cent in July.
The 20.52 figure is the highest in 17 years.
The NBS gave the latest inflation update in its CPI report for August 2022, which it released today.
According to the Bureau, the rate was 3.52 per cent higher than the 17.01 per cent recorded in August 2021, indicating a rush (year-on-year) in August 2022.
According to the report, increases were recorded in all classifications of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in August 2022 was 1.77 per cent. This was 0.05 per cent lower than the rate recorded in July 2022 (1.82 per cent). This means that in August 2022, the headline inflation rate (month–on–month basis) declined by 0.05 per cent,” the report reads.
Already, some economists have told Nigerians to gird their loins and expect no reforms as the country heads into an election year.
“Nigerians should expect no tangible reforms now as we are in an election period. It’s really a tough time for everyone with our current currency problems and food inflation at above 22 per cent. This is not good enough,” an associate consultant to the British Department for International Development (DFID), Celestine Okeke, told The ICIR.
The Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Ltd, Bismarck Rewane, who had forecast that Nigeria’s inflation rate could go above the 20 per cent mark, said that it was mere “cheap talk” for the Nigerian government to continuously speak on economic diversification, without having the political will to take the right steps.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.