By Favour Nnabugwu

The country inflation has increase from 8 percent straight month to 20.77 per cent in September, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday has shown.

The NBS attributed the likely cause of the rise to the disruption in the supply of food products, increase in import cost due to the persistent currency depreciation, and a general increase in the cost of production.

On a year–on–year basis, in September 2022, the headline inflation rate of 20.77 per cent was 4.14 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2021, which was 16.63 per cent.

According to the NBS, “this indicates that in the month of September 2022 the general price level was 4.14 per cent higher relative to September 2021.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in September 2022 was 1.36 per cent, this was 0.41 per cent lower than the 1.77 per cent rate recorded in August 2022. This means that in the month of September 2022, the headline inflation rate, month-on-month basis declined by
0.41 per cent, relative to August 2022″.

The rise in September 2022 inflation rate to 20.77 per cent from 20.5 per cent recorded in August 2022, tends to defy the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) latest unanimous decision to increase the benchmark interest rate (monetary policy rate) to 15.5 per cent in a bid to check the rising rate of inflation in the country.

The decline in the all-items index on a month-on-month basis, that is over the two months was due to the changes in the food index relative to the reference month index which is due to the ongoing harvesting season.

The percentage change in the average CPI for all items index for the twelve months ending September 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 17.43 per cent, showing a 0.6 per cent increase compared to 16.83 per cent recorded in September 2021.