Nigeria witnessed a significant surge in inflation, with the rate rising to 33.69% in April 2024 compared to March’s 33.20%, as per the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.
The report highlighted 0.49% points increase in the April 2024 headline inflation rate compared to March 2024. On a year-on-year basis, the inflation rate was notably 11.47% points higher than April 2023, standing at 22.22%.
Moreover, April 2024 saw a month-on-month headline inflation rate of 2.29%, indicating a 0.73% decrease from March 2024’s rate of 3.02%.
The escalating inflationary pressures have been felt acutely by Nigerians, particularly with soaring prices of food and essential commodities in recent weeks.
This surge in prices compounds the challenges of high living costs amid one of the country’s toughest economic crises, fueled by government policies such as petrol subsidy removal and forex window unification.
The value of the naira experienced a stark decline, plummeting from approximately N1,100/$1 to about N1,500/$1 after an initial appreciation against the dollar in April.
With the latest inflation report in hand, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is poised to review the country’s interest rate from the current 24.75%.
