By Sahabi Abdul
Nigeria’s annual inflation kept up its rising trend in December, reaching 15.75 percent as the cost of food maintained its ripple effect on prices.
It was a 1.61 percent jump from November as the food index ended the year at 19.56 percent from 18.30 percent in November, according to data released on Friday by the NationalBureauofStatistics. . Food inflation rose 2.05 percent in December compared with 2.04 percent in November.
The food index came under pressure from most staples, from bread, cereals, yam and meat to fruits, vegetables, oils and fish, the statistics agency said.
Prices in Nigeria have faced a twin problem of naira depreciation due to low foreign receipts and rising food shortages caused by insecurity in the country’s main food growing regions.
Though the Central Bank of Nigeria set a target band of between 6 to 9 percent in its inflation management, the actual rate have stayed outside this band for the past six years.