Nigeria’s inflation rises to 33.95% in May

Nigeria’s headline inflation rose for the 17th time to 33.95 per cent in May 2024 from 33.69 per cent in April.

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed this in the latest Consumer Price Index and Inflation report released on Saturday.

Looking at the movement, the May 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.26 per cent points when compared to the April 2024 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.54 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023, which was 22.41 per cent. This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in the month of May 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., May 2023).

On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in May 2024 was 2.14 per cent, which was 0.15 per cent lower than the rate recorded in April 2024 (2.29 percent). This means that in the month of May 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is less than the rate of increase in the average price level in April 2024.

This comes as Nigeria’s inflation rose further to 40.66 per cent in May 2024 from 40.53 per cent in April.

The figure showed that Nigeria’s inflation continued to jump since the commencement of President Bola Tinubu’s administration in May last year when it stood at 22.41 per cent.

Recall that in April 2024, Nigeria’s inflation rose for the 16th time.

The last time Nigeria’s inflation eased was in December 2022, when it stood at 21.34 per cent.