Nigeria’s inflation rate has moderated for the third straight month to hit its lowest level in almost four years, shrugging off effects of recent pronouncements on the country’s land border and foreign exchange (forex) restriction on food items.
The country’s measure of composite changes in the prices of consumer goods and services purchased by households over a period rose by 11.02 percent in August 2019 on a year-on-year basis from 11.08 percent in July, according to data released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The August headline inflation, which was the lowest since January 2016, was driven by moderation in food inflation as well as all items excluding farm produce.
Food inflation decelerated by 13.17 percent in August from the same period last year as against 13.39 percent increase recorded on a year-on-year basis in the preceding month, while the measure of inflation of all items excluding agric produce grew by 8.68 percent in the review month compared with 8.80 percent recorded in July.
These followed President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on August 13 to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop providing forex for the importation of food into the country, and the federal government’s partial closure of the border with Benin Republic on August 20, 2019.
The statistics office said even though the border was closed for only 11 days of 31 days, it was not enough to impact negatively on prices, adding that “the harvest season and existing weak consumer demand and their natural effect to slow down food and other prices will also play a major role in determining the direction of inflation.”
