According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 18.60% in June 2022. This is the highest inflation rate recorded in Nigeria since it reached 18.72% in January 2017. The high inflation rate has been attributed to the increase in energy and food prices and the depreciation in the value of the naira.
High inflation rates mean a decrease in the purchasing power of the naira, which means the naira can no longer buy as much as it used to buy when the inflation rate was lower.
Nigeria’s inflation rate as at June 2022, increased, year on year, by 0.84% when compared to the 17.75% figure recorded in June of 2021.
The urban inflation rate currently stands at 19.09% showing a percentage increase of 0.74% compared to 18.35% recorded in May 2022. The rural inflation rate also stands at 18.13% showing a percentage increase of 0.97 compared to 17.16% recorded in May 2022.
The food inflation rate recorded in June 2022 stands at 20.6% from 19.5% recorded in May 2022, showing a percentage increase of 1.23% when compared to the 21.83% recorded in June 2021. The increase in food inflation was caused by an increase in the prices of food items like bread, cereals, tubers, meats, fish, oil and other food products. The food sub-index also increased to 2.05% from 2.01% recorded in May 2022.
Core inflation stood at 15.75% showing an increase of 2.66% compared to 13.09% in May 2022. The highest increases were recorded in gas, transport travel by road, transport travel by air, liquid fuel, solid fuel and cleaning, repair and hiring of clothes.
Bauchi (21.99%), Kogi (21.37%) and Ebonyi (20.73%) recorded the highest headline inflation while Adamawa (16.14%), Sokoto (16.31%) and Jigawa (16.37%) recorded the lowest headline inflation respectively.