Rising Food Prices Pushes inflation To 22.22%

The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 22.22 percent in April 2023, up from 22.04 percent in the previous month.

The inflation rate data is contained in the latest CPI report released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The April increase comes across as the fourth consecutive surge in the country’s inflation figure since the year began.

“Looking at the movement, the April 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.18% points when compared to March 2023 headline inflation rate,” the report reads.

“Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.40% points higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2022, which was 16.82%.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate on a year-on-year basis increased in April 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., April 2022).”

NBS said items such as food and non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel contributed largely on the divisional level to the increase in the headline index.

“The contributions of items on the divisional level to the increase in the headline index are presented below: food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.51 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuel (3.72 percent),” the agency said.

“Clothing and footwear (1.70 percent); transport (1.45 percent); furnishings, household equipment and maintenance (1.12 percent); education (0.88 percent); health (0.67 percent); miscellaneous goods and services (0.37 percent); restaurant and hotels (0.27 percent); alcoholic beverage, tobacco and kola (0.24 percent); recreation and culture (0.15 percent) and communication (0.15 percent).”