High Food Prices Push Nigeria’s Inflation Up 13.22 per cent

The ripple effects of border closure, flooding and dollar scarcity which resulted in increase in the prices of food impacted Nigeria’s economy in August.

The National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday that Nigeria’s inflation rose to 13.22 per cent in August as food prices rose exponentially.

The statistics bureau said that the consumer price index, which measures inflation, increased by 13.22 percent in the month under review.

The increase is 0.40 percent points higher than the rate recorded in July 2020 (12.82 percent).

“On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.34 percent in August 2020. This is 0.09 per cent higher than the rate recorded in July 2020 (1.25 per cent),” the bureau said in its report.

The report showed that composite food index rose by 16 per cent in August, compared to 15.48 per cent in July.

The rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, fruits, oils and fats and vegetables, NBS added.

Read: Bread Prices to Increase as Bakers Groan Over Forex

Last Tuesday, Bakers in Nigeria threatened to increase the price of bread in the market.At a press conference in Lagos, the Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria and the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria said that the prevailing economic situation would compel them to increase the prices of bread in the market.\
They attributed the looming price increase to exponential rise in the prices of baking ingredients.
Also on Thursday, manufacturers said in Lagos that their inventory of unsold goods jumped to a record high with a value of 402.4 billion naira ($1 billion).
Mansur Ahmed, president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, attributed the development consumers’ shrinking income.

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