By Marcus Ikechukwu
The National Bureau of Statistics has released its latest index report, indicating that headline inflation rate eased to 21.34% in December 2022, compared to November 2022 headline inflation rate which was 21.47%.
The agency said inflation declined by 0.13% within the period under review.
The report, released to the public on Monday in Abuja equally indicated that on a year on year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.72% points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2021, which was (15.63%).
“Looking at the trend, December 2022 inflation rate showed a decline of 0.13% when compared to November 2022 inflation rate,” the NBS report stated.
Giving a further breakdown, the statistics agency noted that on a year on year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.72% points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2021, which was (15.63%).
It said it shows that the headline inflation rate increased in the month of December 2022 when compared to the same month in the preceding year ( December 2021).
“On a month-on-month basis, the percentage change in the All Items Index in December 2022 was 1.71%, which was 0.32% higher than the rate recorded in November 2022 (1.39%).
“This means that in the month of December 2022, the general price level was 0.32% higher relative to November 2022,” it stated.
The report also noted that the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending December 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was at 18.85%, showing 1.89% increase compared to the 16.95% recorded in December 2021.
It noted that the increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the Headline index most especially in Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Transport and Miscellaneous Goods and Services.
“The likely factors responsible for the increase in inflation rate in month-on-month can be attributed to the sharp increase in demand usually experience during the festive season, increase in the cost of production, such as increase in energy cost, transportation cost, exchange rate depreciation,” the report indicated.
