Food items push further Nigeria’s inflation by 0.06% in May

Traders displaying food items for sale. PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI

•Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Edo record highest increases

Nigeria’s headline inflation for the month of May, rose further by 0.06 per cent to hit 12.40 per cent year-on-year, largely due to increases in food items including fish, vegetables, bread, oil, fruits, and others.
  
Latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed that the inflation rose from 12.34 per cent in April to 12.40 per cent in May. From a month ago, the headline inflation increased by 15 basis points to 1.17%, the steepest since July 2017.
  
The percentage change in the average composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the 12 months period ending May 2020, over the average CPI in April year-on-year was 11.79 per cent, showing 0.08 per cent increase from 11.71 per cent recorded a month earlier.
Similarly, NBS showed that food inflation rose marginally by 0.01 per cent to stand at 15.04 per cent in May from 15.03 per cent in the previous month.

The Food Sub-Index rose to 1.42 per cent in the month of May compared to 1.18 per cent in April, expanding by 24 basis points.
Broken further, the report disclosed that food inflation year-on-year was highest in Abuja 18.13 per cent; Osun 17.40 per cent; and Imo 17.13 per cent, while Abia with 13.46 per cent, Bauchi 12.97 per cent, and Kaduna 12.97 per cent recorded the slowest rise.
   
However, month-on-month, food inflation was highest in Ebonyi at 3.43 per cent; Bayelsa 3.21 per cent; and Edo 2.74 per cent, while Zamfara 0.22 per cent, and Abia 0.21 per cent recorded the slowest rise.

However, Akwa Ibom recorded price deflation or negative inflation (general decrease in the general price level of food or a negative food inflation rate).
   
Furthermore, core inflation also rose by 14 basis points or 0.04 per cent from 9.98 per cent in April to 10.12 per cent in May 2020. While month-on-month, it dropped to 0.88 per cent from 0.93 per cent in April 2020.

The spike was mostly due to pressures in the prices of pharmaceutical products, medical services, furniture repair, and transportation, among others following the easing of nationwide lockdown on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
    
According to the report, urban inflation index was higher by 0.02 per cent year-on-year to 13.03 per cent in May from 13.01 per cent in April, while rural inflation also rose to 11.83 per cent up from 11.73 per cent in April. Rural/Urban month-on-month figures showed that urban rose to 1.18 per cent from 1.06 per cent, while the rural inflation rose to 1.16 per cent from 0.98 per cent.