Just in: Nigeria’s inflation rate eases in December

Nigeria’s inflation rate surprisingly eased to 21.34% in December 2022 despite the Christmas and New Year festivities, dropping from 21.47% recorded in November.

This is according to the latest inflation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Note that this is the first time Nigeria’s headline inflation rate dropped on a month-on-month basis in the last eleven months.

Compared to November 2022, the rate dropped by 0.12% points, representing a 5.72% points increase compared to 15.63% recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

Food inflation, a closely watched index, fell to 23.75% in December 2022 from 24.13% recorded in the previous month.

On the other hand, the “All items less farm produce’’ index or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 18.49% in December 2022. This is 24.8 basis points higher when compared to the 18.24% recorded in November 2022.

More details shortly…