Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 25.80% in August 2023, marking a 1.72% point rise from the previous month’s rate of 24.08%. This surge in inflation is attributed to the removal of petrol subsidies and the devaluation of the official exchange rate, according to the Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Month-on-month inflation also saw an uptick, rising to 3.18% in August, up from 2.89% in the preceding month. The major contributors to year-on-year inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages (13.36%), housing water, electricity, gas, and other fuel (4.32%), and clothing and footwear (1.97%).
On a year-on-year basis, urban inflation reached 27.69% in August 2023, a significant increase of 6.73% points compared to the 20.95% recorded in August 2022. Rural inflation stood at 24.10%, marking a 3.98% point increase from the 20.12% recorded in August 2022.
Food inflation witnessed a sharp rise, reaching 29.34% in August 2023, which is a 2.35% point increase from the previous month and 6.22% points higher than the figure recorded in the same period in 2022. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was 3.87% in August 2023, up from 3.45% in July 2023.
The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending in August 2023 was 25.01%, representing a 5.99% point increase from the previous twelve-month average recorded in August 2022 (19.02%).
Regionally, Kogi (31.50%), Lagos (29.17%), and Rivers (29.06%) recorded the highest all-items inflation rates on a year-on-year basis, while Sokoto (20.91%), Borno (21.77%), and Nasarawa (22.25%) had the slowest rises in headline inflation. In terms of food inflation, Kogi (38.84%), Lagos (36.04%), and Kwara (35.33%) had the highest year-on-year rates, while Sokoto (20.09%), Nasarawa (24.35%), and Jigawa (24.53%) recorded the slowest rises.