There is no doubt that the federal government is having it tough with the management of the economy. The economic team has been grappling with the ailing economy but it appears that the its effort has not started paying off yet. This is because the inflation keeps rising, and so is the cost of living for the people in an environment where earning power has not appreciated enough to mitigate the attendant hardship.
This is evident in the data made available by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). According to the bureau, the headline Inflation rate for October 2024, on a year-on-year basis, increased to 33.88 per cent relative to the previous month when headline inflation rate was 32.70 per cent.
The trend in October 2024, according to the Bureau’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, was that the headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.18 per cent points compared to the September 2024 headline inflation rate. Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.55 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2023 at 27.33 per cent.
The increase in the headline index for October 2024 was attributed to the rise in the average price of some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level.
These increases were observed in Food and non-alcoholic Beverages at 17.55 per cent, Housing, Water, Electricity, gas, and others like Fuel at 5.67 per cent, Clothing & Footwear at 2.59 per cent; Transport at 2.20 percent; Education at 1.34 per cent and Health at 1.02 per cent.
Similarly, on a month-over-month basis, the headline inflation rate in October 2024 also rose to 2.64 per cent compared to the rate recorded in September 2024 by 2.52 per cent.
This shows that the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than that of the preceding month by 0.12 per cent.
The Food sub-index for October 2024 increased to 39.16 per cent year-on-year, a 7.44 percent point higher than the rate recorded in October 2023 which stood at 31.52 per cent.
The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was attributed to increases in prices of Guinea Corn, Rice, Maize etc. (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Water Yam, Coco Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil etc. (Oil and Fats Class) and Milo Lipton, Bournvita etc. (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class).
On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in October 2024 was 2.94 per cent, a 0.30 per cent point higher than the rate recorded in September 2024 by 2.64 per cent.
The rise in Food inflation was caused by an increase in the average prices of Palm Oil, Vegetable oil, etc. (Oil & Fats Class), Mudfish, Croaker (Apo), Fresh fish (Obokun), etc. (Fish Class), Dried Beef, Goat Meat, Mutton, Skin meat, etc (Meat Class), and Bread, Guinea Corn flour, Plantain flour, Rice, etc. (Bread and Cereals Class).
The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending October 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 38.12 per cent, an 11.79 percent point increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2023 at 26.33 percent.
The Urban consumer’s inflation rate on a year-on-year basis stood at 36.38 percent in the period under review. This shows a 7.09 percent point higher compared to the 29.29 percent recorded in the corresponding month in the year 2023. On a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate grew by 2.75 per cent in October 2024, which shows
a marginal increase of 0.08 per cent compared to 2.67 per cent in September 2024.
The Rural consumer’s sub-index in October 2024 was 31.59 per cent on a year-on-year basis; this was 6.01 per cent higher compared to the 25.58 per cent recorded in October 2023.