The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics, Prince Semiu Adeniran, said this in the Consumer Price Index for July 2022 released by the bureau in Abuja on Monday.
Economists and other stakeholders, in separate interviews with The PUNCH, warned that the rising inflation would worsen hunger in the country, adding that the government risked mass protests similar to the one in Sierra Leon recently.
Giving a breakdown of the report in a statement, Adeniran said the CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.
According to him, it was a core macroeconomic indicator used in the derivation of the inflation rate for policy, planning, and monitoring of an economy.
Adeniran said the report showed that in July 2022, on a year–on–year basis, the headline inflation rate was 19.64 per cent.
“This is 2.27 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021, which was 17.38 per cent,” he said.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate increased in July 2022 when compared to the same month in the previous year of July 2021.”
On a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate was 20.09 per cent, which was 2.08 per cent higher compared to 18.01 per cent recorded in July 2021, the NBS said.
The July 2022 rural inflation rate was 19.22% per cent, compared to the 16.75 per cent recorded in July 2021.
Similarly, the food inflation rate in July 2022 was 22.02 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 0.99 per cent higher 21.03 per cent in the corresponding period of 2021.
Sierra Leone’s crisis
Crisis erupted in Sierra Leone in August following high food prices in the West African nation. The country’s government imposed a curfew after 20 persons, including the police and civilians, were killed in violent clashes in the West African nation last week.
Like Nigeria, inflation rate has doubled in Sierra Leone in the last 18 months, moving from 11.9 per cent in February 2021 to 24.9 per cent, pushing the poorest of the poor into misery.
In the light of the rising inflation, business groups have asked Nigerian policy makers and the country’s President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to buckle down their shoes and save the country from a looming danger.
The International Co-ordinator, Advocate for People Right and Justice, Victor Giwa, said Nigeria was at the point of embarking on a protest similar to that of Sierra Leone as the average Nigerians could hardly survive in the country.
He, therefore, advised the government to engage and listen to the demands of the citizens.
The Director-General of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, Sola Obadimu, who also said the worsening inflation crisis stemmed from bad management of the economy, which was steering the country towards tougher times.
He said, “There are natural consequences of bad economic management. That is why you see mass emigration. This is a consequence of a failing economy, a failing nation. The currency is increasingly becoming worthless. The economy is not being managed well. The economy is not supposed to be managed by the CBN governor. He has his own aspect to manage, which is the monetary. Inflation is now at an uncontrollable level. You go to a store, you buy something for N2. When you go there tomorrow, it’s N5.
