The nation’s headline inflation rate increased by 0.09 percentage points from 21.82 percent in January 2023 to 21.91 percent in February 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The bureau made this claim in its study titled “Consumer Price Index (February 2023),” which was made accessible to the media on Wednesday.
The study is released as the nation works to recover from months of naira scarcity brought on by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) currency redesign program, which was initially announced on October 26, 2022.
Prior to the 2023 general elections, the CBN introduced the redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes in November 2022 in an effort to combat cash hoarding and vote-buying.
The new deadline of February 10 was implemented in conjunction with a Supreme Court decision upholding the legality of the earlier notes.
“In February 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 21.91% compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 21.82%,” it stated.
“Looking at the trend, the February 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.09% points when compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate.”
The headline inflation rate was also 6.21 percent points higher year over year than the 15.70 percent rate registered in February 2022.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in February 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2022),” the report stated.
“The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are presented, thus: Bread and Cereal (21.67%), Actual and Imputed Rent (7.74%), Potatoes, Yam and Other Tubers (6.06%), Vegetable (5.44%) and Meat (4.78%).”
The NBS reported that the All-Items Index changed by 1.71 percent on a monthly basis in February 2023, which was 0.16 percent points less than the rate seen in January 2023. (1.87 percent).
“This means that in February 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.16% percent lower relative to January 2023.
“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending February 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 19.87%, showing a 3.15% points increase compared to 16.73% recorded in February 2022. The increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the headline index.”
