Nigeria’s Inflation Hits  18.17%

4 years ago
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Nigeria's inflation rate hits 18.17%
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation further increased by 18.17 per cent in March compared to 17.33 per cent in the preceding month.
The  CPI Report for March, which was released Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), food inflation increased by 22.95 per cent from 21.79 per cent in February.
Core Inflation also rose to 12.67 per cent in March from 12.38 per cent in the preceding month.
Muda Yussuf,the Director -General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry,told Premium News that the  mounting inflationary pressure is a troubling phenomenon.
 The March headline inflation of 18.17% is the highest in four years,he said,adding that more worrisome is the food inflation has accelerated to 23%.
He said:”The key drivers of the mounting inflation currency depreciation,  acute illiquidity in the foreign exchange market, rising transportation costs,  agricultural output disruptions caused by growing insecurity,  logistics challenges, hike in energy prices,  climate change,  and structural bottlenecks to production.  These are essentially supply side issues. The major issues are cost and output related.
” The solution therefore would have to be situated in the context of these causal factors.
Rising  inflationary pressures weakens purchasing power of citizens as real incomes collapse, it accentuates pressure on production costs,  it negatively impacts profitability,  and undermines  investors confidence.
“It is not in all cases that high  production and operating costs can be passed on to the consumers.  The implication is that producers are also taking a hit.  This is more severe where a product or service is faced with a high demand elasticity. These are products that consumers can readily do without.
Tackling inflation requires urgent government intervention to address the challenges bedevelling the supply side of the economy.
There is also a need to worry about the growing fiscal deficit,  especially the CBN financing of the deficit.  It is characterized as inflation tax by a school of thought in economic literature.
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