Inflation Remains Unrelenting, Inches To 34.80 Percent As Sokoto Leads In Food Inflation

Statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on have shown that Nigeria’s Inflationary trend remains unrelenting increasing further to 34.80 percent in December, 2024 as against 34.60 percent in November.

NBS disclosed this in its monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) released Wednesday, as food inflation in December 2024, on a Year-on-Year basis was highest in Sokoto (57.47%), while Zamfara (46.39%), Edo (46.32%), Ogun (34.24%), Rivers (35.43%), and Kwara (35.58%) recorded lowest.

It attributed the increase in inflation to “December festive period increases in demand for goods and services.”

According to NBS, “In December 2024, the Headline inflation rate was 34.80% relative to the November 2024 headline inflation rate of 34.60%.

“Looking at the movement, the December 2024 Headline inflation rate showed a marginal increase of 0.20% compared to the November 2024 Headline inflation rate. This was due to December festive period increases in demand for goods and services.

“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 5.87% higher than the rate recorded in December 2023 (28.92%). This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in December 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2023).

“On the contrary, the month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in December 2024 was 2.44%, which was 0.20% lower than the rate recorded in November 2024 (2.64%). This means that in December 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is slightly lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in November 2024.

On a Month-on-Month basis, however, December 2024 Food inflation was highest in Kogi (6.53%), Sokoto (6.21%), and Cross River (5.90%) while Yobe (-3.21%), Kano (-1.29%) and Abuja (-0.79%) recorded decline in Food inflation on Month-on-Month basis.