By Bassey Udo
The consumer price index, (CPI), which measures the rate of inflation in the economy grew from 15.92 percent in March 2022 to16.82 percent (year-on-year basis) in April 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in its latest report.
On a month-on-month basis, the NBS said headline index rose to about 1.76 percent during the month, which is marginally higher by about 0.02 percent than the rate recorded in March 2022 (1.74) percent.
The statistics agency said the latest level is about 1.3 percent points lower compared to the rate recorded in the corresponding period in April 2021 (18.12) percent.
However, the agency said the headline inflation rate slowed down during the month when compared to the same month in the previous year.
The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending April 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period is about 16.45 percent, a 0.1 percent drop, compared to the 16.54 percent recorded in March 2022.
The NBS said increases were recorded in all) 12 Classification of Individual Consumption
by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline index,
the urban inflation rate rising to 17.35 percent (year-on-year) in April 2022 from 18.68
percent recorded in April 2021.
On the other hand, the rural inflation rate increased to 16.32 percent in April 2022, from 17.57 percent in April 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose to 1.78 percent in April 2022, up by 0.02
from the rate recorded in March 2022 (1.76), while the rural index also rose to 1.74 percent in
April 2022, up by 0.01 from the rate that was recorded in March 2022 (1.73) percent.
The corresponding 12-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 17.01 percent in April 2022 lower than 17.10 percent reported in March 2022,
while the corresponding rural inflation rate in April 2022 is 15.91 percent compared to 16.00 percent recorded in March 2022.
The ‘’All items less farm produce’’ or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 14.18 percent in April 2022, up by 1.44 percent, when compared
with 12.74 percent recorded in April 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the core sub-index increased to 1.22 percent in April 2022, down by 0.24 percent when compared with 0.98 percent recorded in March 2022.
The highest increases were recorded in prices of Gas, Liquid fuel, Cleaning, repair and hire
of clothing, Clothing materials, other articles of clothing, and clothing accessories.
The average 12-month annual rate of change of the index was 13.68 percent for the twelve-
month period ending April 2022; this is 0.12 percent points higher than the 13.56 percent
recorded in March 2022.
Food Inflation
During the month, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (22.79 percent), Kwara (21.56 percent), Sokoto (14.85 percent), Kaduna (15.55 percent), while Anambra (16.68 percent) recorded the slowest rise in year-on-year food inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, however, March 2022 food inflation was highest in Ekiti
(4.03%), Taraba (3.68%), and Osun (3.04%), while Anambra (0.66%), Kogi (1.01%) and Bau-
chi (1.08%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.
