May 17 (Lagos) - In April, Nigeria's headline inflation increased to 33.69% year-on-year from 33.20% in March 2024. Food inflation rose to 40.52% year-on-year in April from 40.01% in March, while core inflation, which excludes food and energy items, increased to 26.84% in April from 25.90% in March, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
On a monthly basis, the headline index grew by 2.29% in April (vs 3.02% in March).
The core index increased to 2.20% m/m in April vs. 2.54% m/m in March. Similarly, the food sub-index grew slower at 2.50% m/m compared to 3.62% m/m in March.
The urban inflation rate increased to 36.00% y/y (vs 35.18% y/y in March 2024).
The rural inflation rate was rose at 31.64% y/y (vs 31.45% y/y in March 2024).
Whatever way you see this, it is a very disappointing report. CBN will have to consider further interest rate hikes to tame the inflation monster it has created by delaying these interest rate hikes for the past 10 years when inflation started spiking.
Add to that the Naira devaluation and we've had the recipe for hyper-inflation that we are already seeing in food prices.
reporting for easykobo.com on Thursday, May 17 2024 from Lagos, Nigeria