Nigeria’s inflation rate drops by 0.37% in July

Nigeria’s inflation drops to 17.38%

The Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation dropped further by 0.37 percent to 17.38 per cent (year-on-year) in July 2021 from 17.75 percent recorded in June.

This was contained in the “Consumer Price Index (CPI) July 2021 Report” released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the report, this implies that prices continued to rise in July 2021 but at a slower rise than it did in June 2021.

NBS disclosed that increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline Index.

“On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 0.93 per cent in July. This was 0.13 percentage points lower than the 1.06 per cent recorded in June.

“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending July 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 16.30 per cent, showing 0.37 per cent rise from 15.93 per cent recorded in June,” said the Bureau.

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It added that urban inflation rate increased by 18.01 per cent (year-on-year) in July, from 18.35 per cent recorded in June, while the rural inflation rate increased by 16.75 per cent in July from 17.16 per cent in June.

On a month-on-month basis, it said the urban index rose by 0.98 per cent in July, but declined by 0.11 points against the rate recorded in June (1.09 per cent).

Similarly, it said the rural index rose by 0.87 per cent in July; however, it dropped by 0.15 points over the rate recorded in June (1.02 per cent).

“The corresponding twelve-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index was 16.89 percent in July 2021. This is it said was higher than 16.51 percent reported in July 2021, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in July 2021 was 15.73 percent compared to 15.36 percent recorded in June 2021.”

The report said the composite food index rose by 21.03 per cent in the month under review compared to 21.83 per cent in June, implying that food prices continued to rise in July, but at a slower speed than it did in June.

According to the NBS, on month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 0.86 per cent in July, down by 0.25 per cent points from 1.11 per cent recorded in June.

It, however, said the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of milk, cheese and eggs, coffee, tea and cocoa, vegetables, bread and cereals, soft drinks, and meat.

Meanwhile, the “All items less farm produce” or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 13.72 per cent in July, up by 0.63 per cent when compared with 13.09 per cent recorded in June.

On month-on-month basis, the core sub-index increased by 1.31 per cent in July, up by 0.50 per cent when compared with 0.81 per cent recorded in June.

However, the highest increases were recorded in prices of garments, shoes and other footwear, clothing materials, other articles of clothing and clothing accessories.

Others are: vehicle spare parts, major household appliances whether electric or not, pharmaceutical products, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing, furniture and furnishing, medical and hospital services.