THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Nigeria’s inflation rate surged to 33.95% in May 2024.
This marks a 0.26 percentage point rise from the April 2024 figure, as indicated by the NBS Consumer Price Index report released recently.
Comparing year-on-year figures, the headline inflation rate for May 2024 was 11.54% higher than that of May 2023, which stood at 22.41%.
This reveals a notable year-on-year increase in the headline inflation rate for the said period.
According to the NBS report, on a month-on-month basis, the inflation rate in May 2024 was 2.14%, slightly lower than the rate registered in April 2024, which was 2.29%. This implies that the rate of price level increment in May 2024 was less than that in April 2024.
Furthermore, the NBS report highlighted that the year-on-year food inflation rate in May 2024 was 40.66%, showing a significant 15.84% rise from May 2023, which was 24.82%.
The report also attributed the rise in food inflation to increased prices of various commodities, including Semovita, Oatflake, Yam flour prepackage, Garri, Beans, Irish Potatoes, Yam, Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, Stockfish, Mudfish, Crayfish, Beef Head, among others.
To combat this inflation surge, the Central Bank of Nigeria increased the interest rate by 150 basis points in its May Monetary Policy Committee meeting, raising the rate to 26.25% from 24.75%.
This move aims to address the country’s escalating inflation, which had touched 33.69% in April 2024.
