Nigeria’s inflation rate decreased to 33.40% in July 2024, down from 34.19% in June 2024, marking the first decline since December 2022, when it last fell to 21.34%. The latest figures, based on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for July 2024, indicate that the country witnessed a 0.79% decrease in headline inflation in July.
This was disclosed in the CPI inflation report published by the NBS on Thursday, which stated, “In July 2024, the headline inflation rate eased to 33.40% relative to the June 2024 headline inflation rate of 34.19%. Looking at the movement, the July 2024 inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.8 percentage points when compared to the June 2024 headline inflation rate.”
The report further revealed that the July inflation figure was 9.32% higher than that of July 2023. “On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.32 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2023, which was 24.08%. This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in July 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., July 2023).”
Additionally, the report highlighted that on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2024 was 2.28%, which was slightly lower than the 2.31% recorded in June 2024. “This means that in July 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in June 2024,” the report read in part.
Despite the overall decline in headline inflation, core inflation remained high in July, with prices for key services such as rent, transportation, and healthcare rising significantly. According to the NBS, the core inflation rate for July was 27.47%, a slight increase from the 27.40% recorded in June 2024.
The report also attributed the drop in overall and food inflation to lower costs of certain food items like canned milk, powdered milk, fish, watermelon, and bread. Nigeria’s food inflation rate fell to 39.53% in July, down from 40.87% in June 2024.
