NIGERIA’s headline inflation moderated to 22.22 per cent in June, from 22.97 per cent in May, marking the third consecutive month of decline.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported this in its latest monthly Consumer Price Index data released on Wednesday, July 16.

Its report showed that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation was 11.97 per cent lower than the 34.19 per cent recorded in June 2024.

However, food inflation rose to 21.97 per cent in June from 21.14 per cent in the previous month.

On a year-on-year basis, food inflation was 18.93 percentage points lower than the 40.87 per cent rate recorded in June 2024.

“The increase can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of green peas (Dried), pepper (fresh), shrimps (white dried), crayfish, meat (fresh), tomatoes (fresh), plantain flour, ground pepper, ” NBS said.

Significantly, the decline in the annual headline and food inflation figures was technically due to the change in the base year, NBS noted.

The ICIR reports that the rebasing of the CPI saw inflation drop from 34.80 per cent in December 2024 to 24.48 per cent in January.

While the rebased CPI is to reflect the current inflationary pressure and consumption pattern of people living in the country; however, the drop in inflation does not mean a decline in the general price level of goods and services.

Food prices and other items are increasing and skyrocketing daily.

In a recent report on commodity prices, The ICIR spotlighted that the costs of food items and other commodities continued to pose a challenge for many Nigerians as prices are increasingly high in the markets.

It has further worsened hardship in the country as high food prices are seen affecting the purchasing power of most Nigerians.

The rising costs of food items raise concerns amid the sharp drop in the inflation rate by the NBS.

The disconnect is highly suspicious and distorted, The ICIR reported the concern of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CFG Advisory, Tilewa Adebajo.

He also pointed out that the delay in the NBS releasing the gross domestic product (GDP) questions the exactness of the inflation data, since it wasn’t benchmarked against the actual current growth of the country’s economy.

The statistics office was supposed to have released its rebased GDP report to enable analysts to make sense of rebased CPI, but has yet to do so.