The food inflation rate on a year-on-year basis surged by 13.75 percent against the 24.35 percent recorded in February 2023.
NBS said the surge in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, oil and fat, meat, fruit, coffee, tea, and cocoa.
The statistics hub also noted that the country’s headline inflation rate surged to 31.70 per cent in the period under review. However, on a month-on-month basis, it rose by 1.8 percent point when compared to 29.90 percent recorded in January 2024.
According to the NBS Consumer Price Index CPI report, inflation on a year-on-year basis surged by 9.79 pecent points higher when compared to the 21.91 percent recorded in February 2023.
A breakdown of the report showed that food & non-alcoholic beverages contributed the highest to the rate at 16.42 percent while Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuel contributed 5.3 percent to the February headline inflation.
Subsequently, the report indicated that core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 25.13 percent in February 2024 on a year-on-year basis, a rise of 6.76 percent compared to the 18.37 percent recorded in February 2023.
