Despite a steady rise in commodity prices across the country, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that the headline inflation rate further eased to 32.15 percent in August 2024 relative to the July 2024 headline inflation rate of 33.40 percent.
The August 2024 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.25 percent points when compared to the July 2024 headline inflation rate when the country grapples with the high cost of food items, fluctuation in the exchange rate, and shortage to the food supply chain occasioned by insecurity.
However, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.35 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (25.80 percent).
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in August 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., August 2023)” the statistics bureau said in a report released on Monday.
According to the NBS, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.22 percent. This was 0.06% lower than the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.28 percent).
“This means that in August 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2024,” NBS said, making nonsense of the current high cost of living in Nigeria, driven by over 354 per cent increase in gasoline..”
