Inflation at 15.7% in February, from 15.6per cent in January
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Inflation rate ticked up to 15.7 per cent in February, pushed in part by rises in the prices of goods and services across the board, caused by fuel scarcity as a result of adulterated imported petrol which raised pump price.
This is 0.1 percentage point higher than 15.6 per cent in January, according to the latest consumer price index (CPI) report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Purchasing power is eroded by increases in the prices of goods and services. Money is now worth less than it was in January.
CPI jumped 15.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) from 366.8 index points in February 2021 to 424.4 points in February 2022.
Headline index rose month-on-month (MoM) to 1.63 per cent in February 2022 or 0.16 per cent higher than 1.47 per cent in January.
Urban inflation increased to 16.25 per cent YoY in February 2022 from 17.92 per cent in February 2021. Rural inflation spiked to 15.18 per cent from 16.77 per cent.
Core inflation rose to its highest level in nearly five years to 14.01 per cent. But food inflation dropped to 17.11 per cent from 17.13 per cent in January 2022.
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Food inflation
Closely watched food inflation dipped to 17.11 per cent in February from 17.13 per cent in January, the lowest since September 2020.
The highest prices were of bread and cereals, food products, potato, yam and other tubers, oils and fats and fruit, according to the NBS, as reported by Nairametrics.
Food sub-index increased MoM to 1.87 per cent, up 0.25 percentage points from 1.62 per cent in January
Average monthly food sub-index price from February 2021 to February 2022 was 19.69 per cent. It was 0.4 per cent lower than the 20.09 per cent average annual rate of change in January 2022.
Core inflation
“All items less farm produce’’ or core inflation – which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce – rose 0.14 percentage points to 14.01 per cent against 13.87 per cent in January.
This is the highest core inflation rate in nearly five years since April 2017, attributed to increases in the prices of petroleum products triggered by scarcity.
The highest price increases were in
- Gas, liquid fuel
- Wine, tobacco
- Spirit, narcotics
- Solid fuels, cleaning
- Repair and hire of clothing
- Garments, shoes and other footwear
- Other services in respect of personal transport equipment
- Clothing materials
- Other articles of clothing and clothing accessories
- Other services
Highest state general inflation
All items inflation in February was highest YoY in
- Cross River – 18.84 per cent
- Gombe – 17.70 per cent
- Abuja – 17.68 per cent
Lowest state general inflation
- Anambra – 14.43 per cent
- Sokoto – 13.93 per cent
- Kwara – 13.82 per cent
Highest state food inflation
- Kogi – 21.04 per cent
- Enugu – 20.31 per cent
- Kwara – 20.03 per cent
Lowest state food inflation
- Bauchi – 14.43 per cent
- Anambra – 14.18 per cent
- Sokoto – 13.89 per cent
