The inflation rate fell to 9 percent in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
The inflation rate of Africa’s top oil producer fell from 9.1 percent in April, the Abuja-based statistics office said today in an e-mailed report. The median estimate of seven economistssurveyed by Bloomberg News was 9 percent. Prices rose 0.7 percent in the month.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, which targets an inflation rate of less than 10 percent, may raise itspolicy rate if government spending increases before the elections in 2015, Governor Lamido Sanusi said on June 3. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee held its benchmark interest rateat a record 12 percent for the 10th consecutive meeting on May 21, concerned spending is poised to rise as the military steps up operations in the northeast against Islamist militants.
The inflation rate fell below 10 percent in January, meeting the central bank’s target for the first time since August 2011, as the impact of last year’s higher fuel prices waned. Consumer prices will remain under 10 percent by December if it remains under 10 percent by October, Sanusi said.
[Bloomberg]