By Favour Nnabugwu

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said inflation rate rose by 0.09 percentage point to 21.91 percent in February 2023 from 21.82 percent in January 2023.

This represents the second consecutive monthly rise in headline inflation rate this year since December 2022.

NBS disclosed this today in its Consumers Price Index, CPI report for February 2023 saying that the food inflation index also increased slightly to 24.35 percent in February 2023 from 24.32 percent in January 2023 due to increase in the prices of some food items.

The bureau said:”In February 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 21.91 percent compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate which was 21.82 percent.

“Looking at the trend, the February 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.09 percentage points when compared to January 2023 headline inflation rate.

“Similarly, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.21 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in February 2022, which was 15.7 percent .

“This shows that the headline
inflation rate (YoY basis) increased in February 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2022).

“The contributions of items on a class basis to the increase in the headline index are presented, thus: bread and cereal (21.67 per cent), actual and imputed rent (7.74 percent), potatoes, yam and Other tubers (6.06 percent), vegetable. (5.44 percent) and meat (4.78 percent).

“On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the percentage change in the All-Items Index in February 2023 was 1.71 percent, which was 0.16 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in January 2023 (1.87 percent). “This means that in February 2023, on average, the general price level was 0.16 percent lower relative to January 2023.

“The increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the headline index.”
On food inflation, the bureau said: “The food inflation rate in February 2023 was 24.35 percent on YoY basis; which was
7.24 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in February 2022 (17.1 percent).

“The rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruits, meat, vegetable, and food products.
“On MoM basis, the food inflation rate in February 2023 was 1.9 percent, which was
0.18% points lower compared to the rate recorded in January 2023 (2.08 percent). “