COMFORT EKELEME
Recent data made available by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown that the Nigerian inflation rate has again slowed to 12.48 per cent in April from the 13.34 per cent recorded in March.
This figure is 0.6 per centage points higher than the federal government’s inflation projection of 12.42 percent for 2018 as contained in the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
According to the document, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow at 3.5 per cent in 2018, while inflation is expected to moderate to 12.42 percent, while the 2018 budget also has an inflation benchmark of 12.4 per cent.
“The average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending April 2018 over the previous twelve-month average was 18.89 per cent, 0.4 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in March (19.29) per cent,” the report read.Food items witnessed the most increases in the prices of potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, bread and cereals, oil and fats, vegetables, coffee, tea and cocoa, meat, milk, cheese and eggs.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had in 2017 expressed hopes that inflation would be in single digit by the middle of 2018.He said, “We are very optimistic that food prices will come down, and as they come down it will help to complement the reduction in core inflation. We are hoping that by the middle of next year we should begin to approach the high single digits.
Addressing journalists at the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)and World Bank Group in April, the CBN boss had noted that the monetary policy committee will loosen rates as prices improve.
“At this time, we are still in the mode of tightening, but I can assure all of us that we will not tighten perpetually, that at some point, we will begin to loosen and I believe that those financial accommodation periods are coming on very, very soon,” Emefiele said.
On a year-on-year basis, food inflation was at its highest in Kebbi (17.92 per cent), Bayelsa (17.85 per cent) and Nasarawa (17.71 per cent), while Benue (10.95 per cent), Kogi (12.27 percent) and Gombe (12.46 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation.
On a month on month basis, food inflation was highest in Lagos (2.49 per cent), Ekiti and Kebbi (2.0 per cent) and Rivers (1.98 per cent).
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