Nigeria’s inflation rose again in the month of November, making it 13th straight month of inflation increase. Yet it doesn’t seem the upward trend will reverse soon.
The National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) released the latest economic indices recently and the figures do not show there is respite in sight as rising food, electricity, petrol and data prices shoot up inflation.
According to the NBS, The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 18.48 percent (year-on-year) in November 2016, 0.15 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in October (18.33 percent).”
On Wednesday, President Buhari presented the 2017 budget to the National assembly. It was a 7.3 Trillion naira budget which he has called a ‘Recovery Budget”. It was a 20-percent boost over this year’s spending. This is to “pull the economy out of recession as quickly as possible”.
The NBS said food items increased by 17.2 percent (year-on-year) in the month under review, up 0.1 points from the October rise.
“During the month, the highest increases were seen in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, clothing materials and other articles of clothing, books, liquid fuel, passenger transport by air, motor cycles and shoes and other footwear,” the NBS added.
The Nigerian economy has been hammered by the global crash in prices for oil — worth 70 percent of its revenue and the bulk of its dollars, and ongoing militant attacks on oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta.
In June, the central bank removed a 15-month peg on the naira. The currency now trades at 485 to the dollar in the open market. Dollar scarcity continues to hurt businesses.
According to Bloomberg, the central bank also left its benchmark lending rate at 14 percent in November in a bid to tame inflation.
“With the CBN’s tight monetary stance, if there are no further structural shocks, inflation is likely to peak at a rate slightly above 20 percent in March 2017,” Abuja-based Time Economics Ltd. said in an emailed note before the data were released.
“The inflation in the economy is largely due to structural factors.” Oil-rich Nigeria normally produces 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), but output dropped to a low of 1.4 bpd this year as a result of the activities of militants, with no sign of respite.