Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 33.95%

The nation’s headline inflation rate has risen for the 18th straight month in May, 2024, to 33.95 percent, relative to the 33.69 percent recorded in April, 2024.

According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Saturday, the headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.26 points when compared to the April 2024 rate.

The report pointed at food and non-alcoholic beverages as major contributors to the inflation rate, with food inflation rising to 40.66 percent from the 40.53 percent recorded in April.

The Bureau said, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.54% points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023, which was 22.41%.

This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in the month of May 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., May 2023).

On the contrary, it said, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in May 2024 was 2.14%, which was 0.15% lower than the rate recorded in April 2024 (2.29%).

This means that in the month of May 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is less than the rate of increase in the average price level in April 2024.