By Mariam Abeeb
The National Bureau of Statistics says Nigeria’s inflation rate was 34.80 percent in December — up from 33.60 percent in November.
The data is captured in NBS’ consumer price index (CPI) report published on Wednesday.
NBS said the headline inflation rate in December rose marginally by “0.20% points when compared to the November 2024 headline inflation rate – due to the festive period increases in demand for goods and services”.
“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 5.87% higher than the rate recorded in December 2023 (28.92%),” the bureau said.
“This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in December 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2023).
“On the contrary, the month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in December 2024 was 2.44%, which was 0.20% lower than the rate recorded in November 2024 (2.64%).
“This means that in December 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is slightly lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in November 2024.”
NBS also said the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending December 2024 over the average for the previous twelve-month period was 33.24 percent – representing an 8.58 percent increase compared to 24.66 percent recorded in December 2023.
Nigeria’s inflation rate began to rise in September 2024 when it rose to 32.7 percent from 32.15 percent in August.
The following month, Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed to 33.8 percent, and rose further to 34.6 percent in November.
The report said the food inflation rate in December 2024 was 39.84 percent on a year-on-year basis — 5.91 percent points higher compared to the 33.93 percent recorded in December 2023.
NBS said the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of yam, water yam, and sweet potatoes.
“Beer, Pinto (Tobacco Class), Guinea Corn, Maize Grains, Rice, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), and Dried Fish-Sadine, Catfish Dried, etc (Fish Class),” NBS said.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in December 2024 was 2.66% which shows a 0.32% decrease compared to the rate recorded in November 2024 (2.98%).
“The decline can be attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices of Local Beer (Burukutu), Pinto (Tobacco Class), Fruit Juice in tin, Malt drinks, etc (Soft Drinks Class), Rice, Millet, Maize flour, etc (Bread and Cereals Class) and Water Yam, Irish Potatoes, Coco Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class).
“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending December 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 39.12%, which was 11.16% points higher compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in December 2023 (27.96%).”
NBS said food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Sokoto (57.47 percent), Zamfara (46.39 percent), and Edo (46.32 percent), in December 2024.
However, Ogun (34.24 percent), Rivers (35.43 percent), and Kwara (35.58 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.
On a month-on-month basis, NBS said food inflation was highest in Kogi (6.53 percent), Sokoto (6.21 percent), and Cross River (5.90 percent ), while Yobe (-3.21 percent), Kano (-1.29 percent) and Abuja (-0.79%) recorded decline.
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