Inflation Drops In June

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday said annual inflation in Nigeria has eased to 16.1 percent.

NBS report also claims that a separate food price index showed inflation at 19.91 percent, up from 19.27 percent in May, indicating continued pressure on food prices.

Annual inflation recorded its first recent slowing in February while inflation further slowed in May to 16.25 percent.

Nigeria has been battling recession for two years, and is contending with a currency crisis with dollar shortages resulting from low oil prices, which is the OPEC member’s mainstay.

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Nigeria's May Inflation Drops To 16.25% In New NBS Figures

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday said that the country’s inflation dropped to 16.25 per cent in May from 17.24 per cent in April.

The NBS made this known in its “Consumer Price Index (CPI) May 2017’’ report released on Thursday in Abuja.

According to the bureau, this is the fourth consecutive decline in the rate of inflation since January.

On a month-on-month basis, the bureau stated that the Headline index increased by 1.88 per cent in May 2017, 0.28 per cent points higher than the rate of 1.60 per cent recorded in April 2017.

It stated that food inflation increased by 19.27 per cent (year-on-year) in May 2017, down by 0.03 per cent points from the rate of 19.30 per cent recorded in April.

On a month-on-month basis, the bureau stated that the food sub-index increased by 2.54 per cent in May, up by 0.50 per cent points from 2.04 per cent recorded in April.

The bureau said that rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of meat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, milk cheese and eggs as well as vegetables such as tomatoes.

The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending in May 2017 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 17.63 per cent.

“This is against 17.59 per cent recorded in April 2017, it said.’’

It said the urban index rose by 16.34 per cent (year-on-year) in May 2017 from 17.62 per cent recorded in April.

Accordingly, the rural index increased by 16.02 per cent in May from 16.69 per cent in April.

On month-on-month basis, it stated that the urban index rose by 1.84 per cent in May from 1.61 per cent recorded in April, while the rural index rose by 1.92 per cent in May from 1.59 per cent in April.

The CPI measures the average changeover time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.

The construction of the CPI combines economic theory, sampling and other statistical techniques using data from other surveys to produce a weighted measure of average price changes in the Nigerian economy.

(Source: NAN)

Unemployment Rate In Nigeria Hits 11.5m

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, says the number of unemployed Nigerians rose from 11.19 million as at the end of the third quarter of 2016 to 11.55 million in the fourth quarter of 2016.

This is contained in NBS unemployment report released on Monday night.

It noted that during the period, the unemployment rate rose from 13.9 per cent to 14.2 per cent.

The NBS report said the rate was highest for persons in the labour force between the ages of 15‐24 and 25‐34, which represents the youth population in Nigeria.

Unemployment rate was highest for those within the ages of 15 to 24 rising from 25 per cent to 25.2 per cent.

For the 25 to 34 age group, the unemployment rate, according to the NBS report increased from 15 per cent to 15.4 per cent.

The report added that unemployment and underemployment were higher for women than men in the fourth quarter of 2016.

While 16.3 per cent of women in the labour force were unemployed as at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, 12. 3 per cent of males were unemployed.

“The economically active population increased from 108.03 million to 108.59 million, this represents a 0.5 percent increase over the previous quarter and a 3.4 per cent increase when compared to fourth quarter 2015,” NBS noted.

By Wale Odunsi

Average Price of Imported Rice Drops in Nigeria

The National Bureau of Statistics said the average price of imported rice decreased by 7.22 per cent, as one kilogramme was sold for N250.30 in April from N418.71 in March.

The NBS stated this in its“Selected Food Price watch data for April 2017” released on Tuesday in Abuja.

It, however, stated that the average price of 1kg of rice (imported high quality sold loose) increased year-on-year by 29.98 percent in the month under review.

According to the report, an average price of 1 dozen of Agric. eggs medium size increased year-on-year by 41.04 percent and decreased month-on-month by 1.71 per cent to N518.66 in April 2017 from N527.69 in March.

“The average price of piece of Agric. eggs medium size (price of one) increased year-on-year by 28.74 percent and month-on-month by 5.21 per cent to N46.22 in April from N43.93 in March.

It further stated that the average price of 1kg of tomato increased year-on-year by 15.32 percent and month-on-month by 6.36 per cent to N285.72 in April from N268.64 in March.

Similarly, the average price of 1kg of yam tuber increased year-on-year by 42.45 percent and decreased month-on- month by 2.17 per cent to N250.30 in April from N255.86 in March.

On the methodology of reporting the food prices, NBS stated that over 700 staff was sent to all the states of the federation for the field work and were supervised by experts.

Prices were collected across all the 774 local governments across all states and the FCT from over 10,000 respondents, locations and analysed.

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