Nigeria’s headline inflation jumps to 33.95% – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics have reported that Nigeria’s headline inflation jumped to 33.95% in May 2024.

This represented a 0.26% increase from April 2024. In comparison to May 2023, the inflation rate experienced a considerable increase of 11.54% points on a year-on-year basis, surpassing the 22.41% observed in the previous year.

In May 2024, inflation was 2.14% on a month-to-month basis, which was marginally lower than the 2.29% observed in April 2024.

The NBS indicated that while the overall inflation rate moderated slightly, food inflation soared to 40.66% year-on-year, driven by higher prices of essential items such as semovita, yam flour, palm oil, and various meats.

Food inflation also decreased on a month-on-month basis to 2.28%, down from 2.50% in April 2024. The average annual food inflation rate for the twelve months leading up to May 2024 rose to 34.06%, a notable increase from 23.65% in May 2023.

To tackle rising inflation, the Central Bank of Nigeria raised its Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 150 basis points in its May Monetary Policy Committee meeting, increasing it from 24.75% to 26.25%. This move was aimed at curbing inflation, which had previously stood at 33.69% in April 2024.