Food Inflation Records Highest Since 2016

Nigeria’s food inflation increased by 1.26 percent on a year-on-year basis from 18.30 percent in November 2020 to 19.56 percent in December.

This is according to the December 2020 consumer price index/inflation report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

Checks by our correspondent showed that this is the biggest jump in food inflation since May 2016 when it rose from 13.19 percent in April of that year to 14.86 percent.

The NBS said the increase in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fruits, vegetable, fish and oils and fats

According to the report, the all items index which measures inflation increased from 14.87 percent in November to 15.75 percent.

This represents an increase of 0.86 percentage points.

“The urban inflation rate increased by 16.33 percent (year-on-year) in December 2020 from 15.47 percent recorded in November 2020, while the rural inflation rate increased by 15.20 percent in December 2020 from 14.33 percent in November 2020,” the report read.

“Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 11.37 percent in December 2020, up by 0.32 percent when compared with 11.05 percent recorded in November 2020.”

In December, all items inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Bauchi (19.85 percent), Edo (18.15 percent) and Kogi (18.40 percent), while Lagos (14.05 percent), Kwara (13.91 percent) and Abia (13.30 percent) recorded the slowest rise.