Nigeria’s inflation rises to highest in 11 years at 18.3%

Nigeria’s inflation has risen to 11-year high of 18.3 per cent. Bloomberg reports that this new rate was confirmed by statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in an e-mailed statement today, Monday, November 14.

According to the latest statistics, the country’s inflation accelerated for the 12th consecutive month in October as exchange-rate pressures persisted on the prices of goods and services. The rate rose from 17.9 per cent in September while prices rose 0.8 per cent from the previous month.

Bloomberg reports that “inflation has been accelerating partly due to dollar shortages caused by the plunge in the price of crude, Nigeria’s main export, since mid-2014. That pushed up import costs for consumer goods and machinery”.

“It seems as if inflation hasn’t reached its peak,” Ogho Okiti, chief executive officer at Abuja-based Time Economics Ltd. as saying on Monday by phone. “We may see it approaching 19 percent before the end of this year.”

It reports further that food inflation quickened to 17.1 percent in October from 16.6 percent in September, the statistics agency said. This was driven by increases in the price of bread, cereal, fish and meat. The average gasoline price was 0.3 percent lower in October than in the previous month.

The naira strengthened 0.4 percent to 314.25 per dollar by 10:19 a.m. in the commercial capital, Lagos.

Meanwhile, minister of agriculture and rural development Chief Audu Ogbeh has lamented that Nigeria is a tough country to do business. Ogbeh made the comment while speaking at the 2016 Annual Conference of the Business and Professional Women (BPW) of Nigeria in Abuja with the theme: “Leaders growing leaders”.