Increasing food prices push Nigeria’s inflation rate to 11.37 % in April 2019

The Nigerian consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation, grew at a faster pace in April 2019, climbing to  11.37 percent, an increase of 0.12 percent from the 11.25 percent recorded in March, according to the Consumer Price Index for April issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In its monthly inflation figures released in Abuja on Wednesday, May 15, 2019, the NBS stated that on a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 0.94 percent in April 2019, up by 0.15 percent points from the 0.79 percent recorded in March.

It noted that increases occurred in all the 12 items under the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions.

While headline inflation increased marginally on year on year basis, the composite food index rose by 13.70 percent in April as against 13.45 percent in March 2019, the NBS stated.

It attributed the rise in the food index to increases in the prices of some goods, including fruits, fish, meat, vegetables, potatoes, yam and other tubers, bread and cereals, and oils and fats, milk, cheese and egg.

The added that the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending April 2019 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 11.31 percent.