Nigeria’s inflation rate hit a fresh 17-year high in September, stoked by a slide in the value of the naira that raised the cost of imported goods like gas and liquid fuel.
Annual inflation accelerated to 20.8%, compared with 20.5% in August, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the highest level since September 2005
On a month-on-month basis, the index rose by 1.36% compared to the 1.77% increase recorded in the previous month.
The food index, which accounts for more than half the inflation basket, rose 23.3% from a year earlier, compared with 23.1% in August. Core inflation, which excludes agricultural produce, quickened to 17.6% in September, compared with 17.2% in the previous month. Prices rose 1.36% from a month earlier.
Inflation has now been more than double the 9% ceiling of the central bank’s target band for four months and is likely to be fanned by the continued depreciation of the naira that’s declined almost 4% against the dollar this year and the worst flooding in a decade.
Last month, the policy-setting committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the monetary policy rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, from 14 per cent to 15.5 per cent, the third consecutive increase in 2022.
Governor Godwin Emefiele warned at the bank’s September meeting that policy makers would further hike rates as long as inflation remains stubbornly high. Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said in a Bloomberg interview that the government hopes in the next three months that inflation “should plateau and begin to go down.”
Read also; Nigeria’s Naira Falls to Record Low Against the Dollar as Reserves Fall.
