Fuel scarcity increases Nigeria’s inflation rate to 15.7% in February 2022.

Nigeria’s Inflation rate rose to 15.7% from 15.6% recorded in the previous month. It shows a 0.1% point increase. This is according to the consumer price index report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The hike in Nigeria’s inflation rate can be traced to the increase in the price of commodities, with the fuel price in February. It was announced earlier that analysts predicted the hike in inflation figures for February 2022, as a result of fuel scarcity on the cost of transportation, operation cost, and food cost.

Highlights

* The consumer price index rose by 15.7% year-on-year from 366.8 index points recorded in February 2021 to 424.4 points in February 2022.

* On a month-on-month basis, the headline index increased to 1.63% in February 2022, which is a 0.16% rate higher than the rate recorded in January 2022 (1.47%).

* The urban inflation rate increased to 16.25% year-on-year

* in February 2022 from 17.92% recorded in February 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 15.18 percent in February 2022 from 16.77 percent in February 2021.

* Core inflation also rose to its highest level in over 4 years at 14.01%, while food inflation dropped to 17.11% in the review period from 17.13% recorded in January 2022.

Food inflation

The food inflation rate dropped 17.11% in February 2022 from 17.13% recorded in the previous month. This shows the lowest food inflation rate recorded in Nigeria since September 2020. The NBS reported the highest increase in food prices like Bread and cereals, Food product, Potatoes, yam, and other tubers, Oils and fats, and fruit.

Core inflation

According to research, this is the highest core inflation rate in over 4 years, since April 2017, the highest increases have been recorded in prices of gas, liquid fuel, wine, tobacco, spirit, narcotics, solid fuels, cleaning, repair, and hire of clothing, garments, shoes and other footwear,  personal transport equipment, clothing materials, clothing accessories, and other services.

State inflation

In February 2022, all items on a year-on-year basis were the highest in Cross River (18.84%), Gombe (17.70%), and Abuja (17.68%), while Kwara (13.82%), Sokoto (13.93%), and Anambra (14.43%) recorded the slowest rise in year-on-year inflation. food inflation on a year-on-year basis was the highest in Kogi (21.04%), Enugu (20.31%), and Kwara (20.03%), while Sokoto (13.89%), Anambra (14.18%), and Bauchi (14.43%) recorded the slowest rise in year-on-year food inflation.