First Decline in 7 Months: Nigeria’s Headline Inflation Rate Falls

In July 2024, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate decreased to 33.40%, a drop from 34.19% in June 2024. This marks the first decline since December 2022. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported a month-on-month decline of 0.79 percentage points from June 2024. However, the year-on-year rate for July 2024 was 9.32 percentage points higher than the 24.08% recorded in July 2023.

The report highlighted that food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed significantly to the year-on-year inflation, with a 17.30% increase. Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels followed at 5.59%. Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural products and energy, rose to 27.47% in July 2024, compared to 20.47% in July 2023. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation was slightly up to 2.16% in July 2024 from 2.06% in June 2024.

Food inflation in July 2024 was 39.53% year-on-year, driven by price hikes in items like semovita, yam flour, and wheat flour. This was a 12.55 percentage point increase from July 2023. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was 2.47%, a slight decrease from 2.55% in June 2024. The slower price increases for items like tin milk, baby powdered milk, and various fish categories contributed to this decline.

Urban and rural inflation rates also saw significant changes. Urban inflation was 35.77% year-on-year in July 2024, 9.94 percentage points higher than in July 2023, with a slight month-on-month decrease to 2.46%. The rural inflation rate was 31.26% year-on-year, 8.77 percentage points higher than in July 2023, with a month-on-month decrease to 2.10% in July 2024. The twelve-month average for urban and rural inflation rates in July 2024 stood at 32.89% and 28.86%, respectively.