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The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported today that Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index rose at 11.37 per cent year-on-year in January. This represents a 0.07 percentage points decrease in the rate of increase compared to the 11.44 per cent recorded in December 2018.

According to the latest inflation report, food inflation declined by 13.51 per cent in January, compared to 13.56 per cent recorded in December 2018. The NBS stated that the decline in the food index was caused by the decline in the prices of soft drinks, vegetables, meat, fruits, potatoes, oil and fats, fish, bread and cereal, yam and other tubers.

On a month-on-month basis, the food index inched up by 0.02 percentage points to 0.83 per cent in January, compared to the 0.81 per cent recorded in the month of December 2018.

Core Inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, rose marginally by 0.1 percentage point to 9.9 per cent in January from 9.8 per cent recorded in December.

On a month-on-month basis, however, the core inflation increased by 0.81 per cent in January 2019, compared with the 0.50 per cent increase recorded in December 2018. This represents an increase of 0.31 percentage points.

The highest increases in core inflation were recorded in the prices of major household appliances, garments, narcotics, tobacco, medical and dental services, domestic services and household services, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing, carpet and other floorings.

According to the nation’s statistics agency, urban inflation declined by 11.66 per cent in January, compared to the 11.73 per cent recorded in December 2018. Rural inflation also eased at 11.11 per cent in January from 11.18 per cent in December 2018.

This latest inflation data is 0.03 percentage points below the prediction of FSDH Research, a Lagos-based investment banking firm, whose analysts had predicted 11.40 per cent inflation rate for January.