Though a marginal difference, a drop in inflation, according to reports last month raises hope of better days ahead. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said the July 2024 headline inflation eased to 33.40 per cent, the first drop since President Bola Tinubu’s assumption into power. This shows that inflation fell marginally by 0.79 per cent on a month-on-month basis against the June 2024 inflation which rose by 0.24 percent to a record of 34.19 percent.
Subsequently, on a year-on-year basis, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report recorded a surge of 9.32 per cent to the 24.08 per cent recorded in July 2023. The statistics hub attributed the increase to the high cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages.During the period under review, the NBS said on a divisional level, food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 17.30 per cent to inflation, housing, water, electricity, gas and others such as fuel contributed 5.59 per cent while clothing and footwear accounted for 2.55 per cent, among others
However, this leaves little to cheer, as the statistics still show that the rate surpassed what was recorded the same month last year. The NBS said, “The July 2024 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.8 per cent points when compared to the June 2024 headline inflation rate. On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.32 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2023, which was 24.08 per cent.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in July 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year”.
The reason the drop calls for celebration is that it is having a positive effect on the prices of commodities, especially food items. That notwithstanding, the prices are still higher than where they picked up last year July. Further breakdown of the report showed the food inflation rate in July 2024 dropped to 39.53 per cent compared to 40.87 per cent recorded in June 2024. But it surged by 12.55 per cent on a year-on-year basis, against the 26.98 per cent rate of July 2023
The NBS attributed the rise in food inflation to the increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese and eggs. The case was not different in the urban areas where the inflation rate rose to 35.77 per cent, which was 9.94 per cent points higher when compared to the 25.83 per cent recorded in July 2023.
On a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate was 0.003 percent points lower compared to June 2024. The rural inflation rate in July 2024 was 31.26 percent yearly. This was 8.77 per cent higher than the 22.49 per cent recorded in the preceding year. On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate was down by 0.07 per cent points compared to the 2.17 per cent rate of increase in June 2024.