Nigeria’s inflation rate drops by 0.8% in July

There appears to be a Ray of hope as Nigeria’s inflation, which has maintained a consistent rise over the last 18 months, has dropped by 0.8 per cent in July 2024.

The National Bureau of Statistics, in its July consumer price index (CPI), said in a report published on Thursday that the July 2024 headline inflation rate eased to 33.40 per cent relative to the June 2024 headline inflation rate of 34.19 per cent.

According to the NBS, the July 2024 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.8 per cent points when compared to the June 2024 headline inflation rate.

The report, however, said that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.32 per points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2023, which was 24.08 per cent.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (on a year-on-year basis) increased in July 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., July 2023),” it said.

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2024 was 2.28 per cent, which was 0.03 per cent lower than the rate recorded in June 2024 (2.31 per cent). This means that in July 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in June 2024.”

Food inflation also dropped to 39.53 in July compared to the 40.87 it was in June 2024, a decline of 0.08 percent on a month-on-month basis.

NBS attributes the fall in food inflation to the decline in the rate of increase in the average prices of Tin Milk, Baby Powdered milk, etc (Under Milk, Cheese & egg Class), as well as Mudfish fish and Fresh fish (Obokun).