INFLATION rate in Nigeria has increased to 15.63 per cent in December 2021 from 15.4 per cent recorded in November of the same year, indicating the first increase in eight months of consecutive decline, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of December 2020 has shown.

The report, published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), also reveals that food for the increasing number of poor Nigerians is not getting cheaper as food inflation increased from 17.21 per cent in November to 17.37 per cent.

Nigeria’s inflation rate had experienced marginal decline in the past eight months since April 2021.

According to the report, the rise in the food sub-index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products, meat, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, soft drinks and fruit.

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The NBS said 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.

Inflation in states

In December 2021, all items inflation on year-on-year basis was highest in Ebonyi at 18.71 per cent; Kogi at 18.37 per cent, and Bauchi at 17.81 per cent, while Kwara,  12.32 per cent; Edo, 13.64 per cent, and Cross River, 13.93 per cent recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.

For food inflation, Kogi, 22.82 per cent; Enugu, 20.65 per cent, and Lagos, 20.27 per cent recorded the highest, while Edo,  13.24 per cent; Kaduna, 13.53 per cent, and Sokoto, 14.82 per cent recorded the slowest rise in headline year-on-year inflation.