By Bashir Olanrewaju
Nigeria’s headline inflation decelerated to 16.63 percent in September, slowing for the sixth consecutive month as food inflation continued to weaken on the back of the country’s harvest season.
The latest consumer price index is 0.38 percent lower than the 17.01 percent recorded in August, according to data released on Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The food-price index, which has proved a major driver of inflation over the past year, stood at 19.57 percent in September, down from the 20.30 percent it reached in August.
“On month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.26 percent in September 2021, up by 0.20 percent points from 1.06 percent recorded in August 2021,” the statistics agency said in a statement on its website. ”The average annual rate of change of the Food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending September 2021 over the previous twelve-month average was 20.71 percent.”