15th April, 2023
Nigeria’s inflation for the month of March 2023, soared to 22.04 per cent, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.
According to the NBS, the headline inflation rate rose to 22.04% compared to February 2023 headline inflation rate which was 21.91%.
“Looking at the trend, the March 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.13% points when compared to February 2023 headline inflation rate.
“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.13% points higher compared to the rate recorded in March 2022 which was 15.92%.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in March 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., March 2022),” the NBS said.
The data also showed that the contributions of items on the divisional level to the increase in the headline index were food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.42%); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel (3.69%); clothing and footwear (1.69%); transport (1.43%); furnishings, household equipment and maintenance (1.11%); education (0.87%); health (0.66%); miscellaneous goods and services (0.37%); restaurant and hotels (0.27%); alcoholic beverage, tobacco and kola (0.24%); recreation and culture (0.15%) and communication (0.15%).
“However, on a month-on-month basis, the All-Items Index in March 2023 was 1.86%, which was 0.15% points higher than the rate recorded in February 2023 (1.71%).
“This means that in March 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.15% higher relative to February 2023.
The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending March 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 20.37%, showing a 3.83% increase compared to 16.54% recorded in March 2022,’ the Bureau said.