Headline Inflation Driven Up To 10.3% By Food and Electricity Prices

According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics in Abuja, headline inflation in the country has mushroomed to 10.3%.

Inflation was 10.2% in June; however effective monetary policy measures employed by the cbN had cause inflation to reduce in July and August consecutively, when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 9.4% and 9.3% respectively.

The CBN had hoped to keep Inflation within a singular digit range. In order to achieve this, the Central Bank had increased prices over six times this year, however those measures have been largely inefficient due to exchange rate pressures on the Naira, coupled with fears that a government plan to remove the petroleum subsidy will drive prices even higher.

The government seems largely incapable of curbing the country’s demand for foreign imports, foreign commodities and foreign currencies led by the greenback.
Food prices were up 0.8% to 9.5% in September. Food prices account for over half of the CPI calculated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the NBS, yam, cooking oil, and fish were big contributors to the increase in inflation.
Also consistent increases to the cost of electricity tariff were also mentioned as the cause of the inflation increase.