Continuous increase in the prices of food items and non-alcoholic beverages has further raised Nigeria’s headline inflation to 22.04 percent in March 2023, the latest data on Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have shown.
This compares to 21.91 percent in the previous month, implying that inflation has increased for the third straight month in a row, after a temporary decline to 21.34 percent in December 2022.
“In March 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 22.04% compared to February 2023 head[1]line inflation rate which was 21.91%. Looking at the trend, the March 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.13% points when compared to February 2023 headline inflation rate,” NBS stated.
On a year-on-year basis, the March 2023 inflation is higher than the corresponding month in 2022 by 612 basis points.
According to the NBS, food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for 11.42 percent of the increase in the headline inflation in March 2023, followed by housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel, 3.69% percent; clothing & footwear, 1.69 percent; transport, 1.43 percent, and furnishings, household equipment & maintenance, 1.11 percent.
Food inflation rose further to 24.45 percent in March as against 24.35 percent in February, corroborating the earlier statement that most of the inflationary pressures in the country came from food and non-alcoholic beverages.
At 23.07 percent in March, inflation was higher in cities and other metropolitan areas in the country compared to 21.09 percent in the rural areas.
The states with the highest inflation on a year-on-year basis are Ondo, 25.38 percent; Bayelsa, 24.80 percent and Lagos, 24.66 percent.
On the other hand, the states with the least inflation during the period are Borno, 19.18 percent; Cross River and Sokoto, 19.24 percent each, and Benue, 20.01 percent.
