Menu

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for April 2019 showing that Nigeria’s headline inflation rose by 11.37 per cent from 11.25 per cent in March. This increase in inflation rate effectively ends the three consecutive months of decline in inflation rate, which began in January.

According to the inflation report, food inflation increased by 0.25 percentage points to 13.70 per cent, compared with the 13.45 per cent recorded in March. The NBS said the rise in the food index was caused by increases in the prices of meat, fish, milk, cheese and egg, oils and fats, bread and cereals, fruits and vegetables, potatoes, yam and other tubers.

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, eased at 9.3 per cent in April, representing a marginal decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the 9.5 per cent reported in March.

On a month-on-month basis, however, the core sub-index increased by 0.70 per cent, compared to the 0.53 per cent rate of increase recorded in the previous month. According to the statistics bureau, the highest increases were recorded in the prices of medical services, hospital services, dental services, major household appliances, garments, actual and imputed rentals for housing, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing, tobacco and vehicle parts.

The urban inflation rate, according to the report, inched up by 11.70 per cent last month, representing an increase of 0.16 percentage points. Similarly, rural inflation rose by 11.08 per cent in April, as against 10.99 per cent reported in the preceding month.