By Anthony Otaru, Abuja
Amid growing disenchantment over high cost of living in the country, the headline inflation rate in Nigeria has again witnessed a slight increase in December 2024, rising to 34.80 per cent the National Bureau of Statistics ( NBS) indicated in its latest report released.
This represents a marginal growth of 0.20 per cent when compared with 34.60 per cent reported in the month November 2024.
The increase was primarily driven by the higher demands for goods and services during the festive season.
On the year to year basis, the NBS report showed that the headline inflation which stood at 34.80 per cent in December last year rose by 5.87 per cent compared with 28.92 per cent recorded December, 2023.
The development shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) actually rose in December 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year
The year-on-year increase also indicates a significant rise in the cost of living compared to the same month in the previous year
On month-on-month basis, however shows that the Headline inflation rate in December 2024 stood at 2.44 per cent representing 0.20 per cent lower than the rate recorded in November 2024 which remained at 2.64 per cent
This means that in December 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was slightly lower than the rate of increase in the average price level for month of November 2024.
The analysis also showed that in the month of November 2024, the Headline inflation rate was 34.60 relative to the October 2024 headline inflation rate of 33.88 per cent.
Looking at the movement, the November 2024 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72 per cent points compared to that of October 2024 rate.
On a year-on-year basis, the inflation rate was 6.40 per cent points higher than 28.20 per cent recorded in November 2023.
This shows that the inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in November 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year
However, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in November 2024 was 2.638 per cent, which was 0.002 per cent points lower than 2.640 per cent recorded in October 2024.
This means that in November 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is slightly lower than the rate of overall increase
