By Our Reporter
Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Nigeria’s consumer price index jumped 13.3 percent in August from a year earlier, accelerated by higher food prices, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
This compares with 12.8 percent recorded in July. The latest number represents the fourth consecutive month of increase, putting inflation at the highest level in 27 months.
Food inflation was again a primary driver as in previous months as worsening insecurity in the countryside, particularly the so far intractable grazing conflict and bandimitry in major food producing areas spread across central and northern Nigeria.
Matters haven’t been helped by the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to close the country’s land borders for more than one year, stifling legitimate food imports from regional countries. An additional source of inflationary pressure has been a worsening dollar shortage due to coronavirus-induced slump in oil earnings.
Month-on-month, prices rose 1.34 percent in August. It was also a period when all the baskets that yield the index all recorded increases.
Though the Central Bank of Nigeria set a target to keep inflation within 6-9 percent, the consumer price index has remained outside that band for almost six years now.