Nigeria’s headline inflation rate surged to 33.69% in April, up from 33.20% in March 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This represents a 0.49 percentage point increase over the previous month.

The NBS, which released the data on Wednesday, attributed the rising inflation to escalating food prices. The food inflation rate in April 2024 was 40.53% on a year-on-year basis, a significant increase of 15.92 percentage points from the 24.61% recorded in April 2023.

“The year-on-year rise in food inflation was driven by increases in the prices of items such as millet flour, garri, bread, wheat flour, semovita, yam tuber, water yam, cocoyam, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, vegetable oil, dried fish (sardine, catfish, mudfish), beef (head, feet, liver), frozen chicken, mango, banana, grapefruit, and beverages like Lipton tea, Bournvita, and Milo,” the NBS reported.

However, on a month-on-month basis, food inflation in April 2024 was 2.50%, showing a decrease of 1.11 percentage points from the 3.62% rate recorded in March 2024. This decline was due to a slower rate of increase in the average prices of yam, water yam, Irish potatoes, local beer, Milo, Bournvita, Nescafe, groundnut oil, palm oil, eggs, fresh milk, powdered milk, tin milk, soft drinks, local spirits like Chelsea and Seaman Schnapps, and fruits like watermelon, pineapple, and pawpaw.

The NBS also noted that the average annual food inflation rate for the twelve months ending April 2024 was 32.74%, a 9.52 percentage point increase from the 23.22% recorded in April 2023.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate in April 2024 was 11.47 percentage points higher than the 22.22% rate recorded in April 2023. This indicates a substantial increase in the inflation rate compared to the same month in the previous year.

Moreover, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in April 2024 was 2.29%, which is 0.73 percentage points lower than the 3.02% rate recorded in March 2024. This shows that the rate of increase in the average price level in April was lower than that in March 2024.