Nigeria’s official public data source, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the country’s inflation rose to its highest level in 11 months, rising from 16.82% recorded in April 2022 to 17.71%.
The new figure is according to the recently released Consumer Price Index report (PDF), released by the NBS.
On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate increased to 1.78 percent in May 2022, this is also 0.02 percent higher than the rate recorded in April 2022 (1.76) percent. The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending May 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period is 16.45 percent, showing a 0.95 percent increase compared to the 15.50 percent recorded in May 2021.
Inflation refers to the rise in the prices of most goods and services of daily or common use, such as food, clothing, housing, recreation, transport, consumer staples, etc. Inflation measures the average price change in a basket of commodities and services over time.
That is, your ₦500 now behaves like ₦450 (or less), by virtue of what you could buy or make payment for with it.
The composite food index rose to 19.50 percent in May 2022 on a year-on-year basis; it declined by 2.78 percent compared to 22.28 percent in May 2021. This rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Food products n.e.c, Potatoes, yam, and other tubers, Wine, Fish, Meat, and Oils.
The implication of the surge in the CPI, is that the purchasing power of Nigerians is eroded by the rising prices of food and services in the country and lately the price of diesel. This implies that the value of money is not worth as much as it was in the previous month.