Nigeria’s inflation rate soars to 12.8%

Nigeria’s inflation rate for the month of March, 2016 has increase to 12.8 per cent, compared to 11.4 per cent recorded in February and 9.6 per cent in January, says the National Bureau of Statistics.

It further stated that the knock on effect of foreign exchange movements, which have in turn affected the prices of imported food and non-food items, the importation of petrol as well as the adjustment in the electricity tariffs nationwide, resulted in a surge of rates.

According to the CPI figures for March released by the NBS recently, the food index increased by 1.4 per cent to 12.7 per cent compared to what was recorded in February.

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It added that all major food groups that contribute to the food sub-index increased at a faster pace while imported items as well as other domestic shocks continued to have ripple effects across many divisions that contribute to the core index which increased by 1.1 per cent to 12.2 per cent in March.

NBS said both the urban and rural inflation recorded marked increases for the second consecutive month in March, as the latter’s index rose by 1.2 percentage points from 12.3 per cent (year-on-year) in February to 13.5 per cent in March.

The rural index increased by 1.3 per cent from 10.7 per cent in February to 12.0 per cent in March.