Despite drop in in headline inflation, Nigerians still pay more for food -NBS

Nigerians continued to pay more for various food items even as the country reported deceleration of inflation rate to 15.99 per cent in October 2021 as against 16.83 per cent in September.

According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the nation’s composite food index rose to 18.34 per cent in October 2021 compared to 17.38 per cent in October, 2020, year on year, showing that the cost of living for an average Nigerian deteriorated further in the month under review.

The NBS Consumer Price shows that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of staple food products such as coffee, tea and cocoa, milk, cheese and eggs; bread and cereals, vegetables and potatoes, yam and other tuber.

Consequently, “On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 0.91 per cent in October of 2021, down by 0.35 per cent points from 1.26 per cent recorded in September 2021.

Similarly, the average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending October 2021 over the previous twelve-month average was 20.75 per cent, 0.04 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in September 2021 (20.71) per cent” it said.

The 15.99 per cent October rate, according to the document is 1.76 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in October 2020 (14.23) per cent.

NBS noted that “Increases were recorded in all Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the headline index. On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 0.98 per cent in October 2021. This is 0.17 per cent rate lower than the rate recorded in September 2021 (1.15) per cent.”

The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending October 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.96 per cent, showing 0.13 per cent point from 16.83 per cent recorded in September 2021.