At 32.15%, inflation drops for second time in a month.

For the second consecutive time, inflation has dropped to 32.15 per cent.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) attributed the 1.25 per cent reduction from the 33.40 per cent rate it announced for July on the crash in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

In its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for August released yesterday, the NBS said food inflation dropped by 0.10 per cent from 2.47% in the previous month to 2.37 per cent.

Last month, the headline inflation rate recorded its first decline for the first time in 19 months, crashing to 33.40 from the July rate of 34.19 per cent.

The rate eased from 33.40 per cent to 32.15 per cent in the August Report titled: “CPI August 2024” as released by the NBS.

Besides the crash in food and non-alcoholic drinks, the Bureau also attributed the crash in inflation to the rural and urban inflation which reduce to 2.06 per cent and 2.46 per cent in the month under review respectively.

The report reads: “In August 2024, the headline inflation rate further eased to 32.15 per cent relative to the July 2024 headline inflation rate of 33.40 per cent.

Looking at the movement, the August 2024 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.25 per cent points when compared to the July 2024 headline inflation rate.”

The NBS however said that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.35% points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (25.80 per cent).

The document said this shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) rose in last month when compared to the same month in the preceding year.

It further said that on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August stood at 2.22 per cent, which was 0.06 per cent lower than the 2.28 per cent record of last August.

The report said that last month, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July.

The Bureau said the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending August 2024 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 31.26 per cent, showing 8.88 per cent increase compared to 22.38 per cent record in August last year.

 On urban inflation, the NBS said on a year-on-year basis, August 2024 Urban inflation rate was 34.58 per cent, this was 6.89 per cent points higher compared to the 27.69 per cent recorded in August 2023.

It also said on a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate was 2.39 per cent in August, this was 0.07 per cent points lower compared to 2.46 per cent in July. The document put the corresponding twelve-month average for the urban inflation rate at 33.44 per cent in August.

The NBS said average was 9.98 per cent points higher when compared to the 23.46 per cent it reported in August 2023.

The rural inflation rate in August was 29.95 per cent on a year-on-year basis; this was 5.85 per cent higher compared to the 24.10 per cent recorded in August 2023.

On a month-on-month basis, said NBS, the “rural inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.06 per cent, down by 0.04 per cent points compared to July (2.10 per cent).

The CPI Report reads: “The corresponding twelve-months average for the Rural inflation rate in August 2024 was 29.32 per cent. This was 7.93 per cent higher compared to the 21.39 per cent recorded in August 2023.”

According to the Bureau, the inflation rate for last month stood at 37.52 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 8.18 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (29.34 per cent).

It said the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items, bread, maize grains, guinea corn, etc (bread and cereals class), yam, irish potatoes, water yam, cassava tuber, etc (potatoes, yam & other tubers Ccass), palm oil, vegetable, etc (oil & fats class) and ovaltine, milo, lipton, etc (coffee, tea & cocoa class).

On a month-on-month basis, the report said that the food inflation rate in August stood at 2.37 per cent which shows a 0.10 per cent decrease compared to the 2.47 per cent rate record of July.

The NBS added that the fall can be attributed to the decline in the rate of increase in the average prices of tobacco, tea, cocoa, coffee, groundnut oil, milk, yam, Irish potatoes, water yam, cassava tuber, palm oil, vegetable among others.

According to the report, the  average annual rate of Food Inflation for the twelve months ending August  over the previous twelve-month average was 36.99%, which was 11.98 per cent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in August 2023 (25.01 per cent).

In the month under review, the NBS said all items inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Bauchi (46.46%), Kebbi (37.51%) and Jigawa (37.43%), while Benue (25.13%), Delta (26.86%) and Imo (28.05%) recorded the slowest rise in headline inflation on Year-on-Year basis.

However, on a month-on-month basis, the NBS said the highest increases were recorded in Kwara (4.45%), Bauchi (4.22%), Adamawa (3.99%), while Ogun (0.21%), Abuja (0.92%), while Kogi’s 1.14 per cent recorded the slowest rise.

The report said in August 2024, food inflation on a Year-on-Year basis was highest in Sokoto (46.98%), Gombe (43.25%), and Yobe (43.21%) while Benue (32.33%), Rivers (33.01%) and Bayelsa (33.36%), recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation on Year-on-Year basis.

It said on a month-on-month basis, however, August 2024 Food inflation was highest in Adamawa (5.46%),

Kebbi (4.48%), and Borno (3.88%), while Ogun (0.08%), Akwa-Ibom (0.45%) and Sokoto (1.00%) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on month-on-month basis.