The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, says, the Consumer Price Index rose to 16.82 percent in April from 15.92 per cent in March.
The NBS stated this in its ‘Consumer Price Index April 2022’ report.
The report said in April 2022, the consumer price index, which measures inflation increased to 16.82 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
The International Monetary Fund, IMF, had recently projected that Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index would hit 16.1 per cent in 2022.
This projection was presented in a tabular illustration in the IMF’s ‘Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa’, which was published on its website.
The latest inflation rate in April is the highest in the country since August 2021 when it was 17.01 per cent.
The rise in the inflation rate in April shows that Nigeria is not left out in the global inflation surge.
NBS said it is also an indication that citizens are becoming poorer, especially given the weakening state of the currency.
In the World Economic Outlook report, the IMF warned about the effects of inflation.
According to the report, in sub-Saharan Africa, food prices are also the most important channel of transmission, although in slightly different ways.
It explained that Wheat,though a less important part of the diet, but food, in general, is a larger share of consumption.
The report submitted that the rising food prices are the underlying factor behind the surge of headline inflation in Nigeria.
Food prices have increased due to import restrictions and a nonflexible exchange rate management.
Additionally, the central bank has restricted importers’ access to foreign currency for 45 products and has reduced the supply to other importers.
This, coupled with border closures across Nigeria in recent times, also worsened inflation, analysts said.
