Date: 2020-11-17

The rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and Cereals, Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, meat, Fish, Fruits, Vegetables, alcoholic and food beverages and Oils and Fats. ByMary Izuaka November 16, 2020 2 min read Prices of food items rose highest in Kwara, Edo and Sokoto states in October, the consumer price index (CPI) report released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.

The report revealed that on a month on month basis, food price inflation was highest in Kwara at 3.88 per cent, Edo at 3.81 per cent and Sokoto at 3.65 per cent.

While Oyo at 0.57 per cent, Jigawa at 0.54 per cent and Taraba at 0.29 per cent recorded the lowest rise in month on month inflation.

The report said the food inflation on a year on year basis was highest in Edo at 21.65 per cent, Zamfara at 20.88 per cent and Kogi at 20.58 per cent, while Lagos at 14.57 per cent, Ogun at 14.47 per cent and Ondo at 14.23 per cent, recorded the lowest rise.

According to the report, the headline index increased by 1.54 per cent in October.

"This is 0.06 per cent rate higher than the rate recorded in September at 1.48 per cent.

"The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending October over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 12.66 per cent, showing a 0.22 per cent point rise from 12.44 per cent recorded in September."

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

The NBS said the composite food index rose by 17.38 per cent in October compared to 16.66 per cent in September.

"On a month on month basis, the food sub-index increased by 1.96 per cent in October, up by 0.08 per cent points from 1.88 per cent recorded in September.

"The average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve month period ending October over the previous twelve month average was 15.42 per cent, representing a 0.29 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in September at 15.13 per cent," it said.

All items inflation

The report said in October, all items inflation on year on year basis was highest in Zamfara at 17.69 per cent, Sokoto at 16.99 per cent and Ebonyi at 16.91 per cent, while Lagos at 11.96 per cent, Abuja at 11.84 per cent and Cross River at 10.50 per cent recorded the lowest rise in headline year on year inflation.

However, on a month on month basis, all items inflation was highest in Sokoto at 2.91 per cent, Edo at 2.53 per cent and Akwa Ibom at 2.52 per cent, while Oyo at 0.69 per cent, Taraba at 0.60 per cent and Jigawa at 0.37 per cent recorded the lowest rise in headline month on month inflation.

Less Farm Produce

"All Items less farm produce" or Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce, stood at 11.14 per cent in October, up by 0.56 percentage points when compared with 10.58 per cent recorded in September," NBS said.

"On a month on month basis, the core sub index increased by 1.25 per cent in October, this was up 0.31 per cent when compared with 0.94 per cent recorded in September.

According to the report, the highest increases were recorded in prices of passenger transport by air, hospital and medical services, passenger transport by road, pharmaceutical products, motor cars, vehicle spare parts, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment, hairdressing salons and personal grooming establishments, miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling, paramedical services and shoes and other footwear.

It said, the average 12-month annual rate of change of the index was 9.96 per cent for the twelve-month period ending October, representing 0.19 per cent points higher than 9.77 per cent recorded in September.

Methodology

The NBS said CPI measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people for day to day living.

It said 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.

It said the weighted measure was used to capture the importance of the selected commodities in the entire index.

The survey methodology generates 3774 all-items indices for all states and FCT, NBS said in the report.