Why Nigeria’s inflation rate spiked in April – Expert

An expert, Dr. Olatunji Arowolo, has attributed the recent rise in Nigeria’s inflation rate in the month of April after several months of consistent decline.

Arowolo, a statistician and lecturer at the department of statistics, Lagos State Polytechnic, attributed the rise to Ramadan

Recall that the National Bureau of Statistics had on May 15 said CPI, which measures inflation, increased by 11.37 per cent (year-on-year) in April 2019.

He said high demand and low productivity, especially foods from Muslim-dominated states, could lead to rise in the food index and in turn pushed inflation up.

The lecturer said in spite of the fact that fasting started in May, people could go into panic buying before then.

Arowolo said: “Panic buying in the anticipation of the fasting can lead to inflation just like we do whenever we hear rumour of impeding fuel scarcity.

“Mind you, the impending increase in the wages might also be a factor.”

According to NBS, the April CPI (11.37 per cent) is 0.12 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in March 2019 (11.25 per cent).

The report said the composite food index rose by 13.70 per cent in April compared to 13.45 per cent in March 2019.

It said the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of meat, fish, oils and fats, bread and cereals, milk, cheese and egg, yam and other tubers, fruits and vegetables.

On month-on-month basis, the report said the food sub-index increased by 1.14 per cent in April, up by 0.26 per cent points from 0.88 per cent recorded in March.