The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that the headline inflation rate in December 2024 rose to 34.80 per cent relative to the 34.60 per cent recorded in November 2024.
The NBS attributed the rise to the December festive period increases in demand for goods and services.
Looking at the movement, the December 2024 Headline inflation rate showed a marginal increase of 0.20 per cent compared to the November 2024 Headline inflation rate.
On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.87 per cent higher than the 28.92 per cent recorded in December 2023.
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, a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in December 2024 was 2.44 per cent, which was 0.20 per cent lower than the 2.64 per cent recorded in November 2024.
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.
The contributions of items on the divisional level to the increase in the headline index show that food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 18.02 per cent.
According to the NBS, the Urban inflation rate was 37.29 per cent on a year-on-year basis in December 2024, showing 6.30 percentage points higher compared to the 31.00 per cent recorded in December 2023.
On a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate was 2.56 per cent in December 2024, this was 0.21 percentage points lower compared to 2.77 per cent recorded in November 2024.
The corresponding twelve-month average for rural inflation rate in December 2024 was 31.14 per cent; this was 7.89 per cent higher compared to the 23.25 per cent recorded in December 2023.
The Food inflation rate in December 2024 was 39.84 per cent on a year-on-year basis, showing 5.91 percentage points higher compared to the 33.93 per cent recorded in December 2023.
The NBS said, “The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items; Yam, Water Yam, Sweet Potatoes, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Beer, Pinto (Tobacco Class), Guinea Corn, Maize Grains, Rice, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), and Dried Fish-Sadine, Catfish Dried, etc (Fish Class).”
On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in December 2024 was 2.66 per cent which shows a 0.32 per cent decrease compared to the 2.98 per cent recorded in November 2024.
The decline, the NBS highlighted, can be attributed to the “rate of decrease in the average prices of local beer (Burukutu), Pinto (Tobacco Class), fruit Juice in tin, Malt drinks, etc (Soft Drinks Class), Rice, Millet, Maize flour, etc (Bread and Cereals Class) and Water Yam, Irish Potatoes, CocoYam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class)”.
The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending December 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 39.12 per cent, which was 11.16 per cent points higher compared with the 27.96 per cent average annual rate of change recorded in December 2023.
The NBS reported, “In December 2024, All Items inflation rate on a Year-on-Year basis was highest in Bauchi (44.06%), Sokoto (42.43%), Kebbi (41.47%), while Katsina (28.33%), Delta (29.23%), and Imo (29.99%) recorded the lowest rise in Headline inflation on Year-on-Year basis. On a Month-on-Month basis, however, December 2024 recorded the highest increases in Kogi (5.40%), Cross River (4.38%), Sokoto (4.29%), while Yobe (-1.82%), Kano (-0.57%) and Abuja (-0.02%) recorded decline on Month-on-Month inflation.
“In December 2024, Food inflation on a Year-on-Year basis was highest in Sokoto (57.47%), Zamfara (46.39%), Edo (46.32%), while Ogun (34.24%), Rivers (35.43%), and Kwara (35.58%) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation on Year-on-Year basis. 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.”
