Numbers don’t lie, as this is evident in the 2021 National Bureau of Statistics, NBS Report on the latest Consumer Price Index.
The report highlighted promising economic estimations revealing downsloping inflation rates ranging from food pricing, consumer price indexes, prices of volatile agricultural produce, to mention a few.
Although, Experts have identified series of contradictions contained in the NBS report, as the encouraging record released seems to disagree with the current prices of commodities in the market.
Realistically, the price of food is incessantly on the rise, yet, the latest NBS consumer price index report confidently states that food inflation stood at 21.83% in June 2021 compared to 22.28% in May 2021.
With an inflation rate showing progress as highlighted above, how come the numbers achieved by NBS is unattainable when narrowed down to the reality of buying and selling in today’s market setting.
Also, the NBS report explained that core inflation dropped from 13.15% recorded in May 2021 to 13.09% in the review period, which apparently looks good in the eyes of analysts.
The fact of this presentation regarding the impressive performance of Nigeria’s current inflation ratio is that it excludes the prices of unpredictable agricultural produce.
The report declared that Nigeria’s inflation has yet again fallen to 17.75% in June from 17.93% in May, representing the third consecutive decline in headline inflation, adding that the economy is steadily improving.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS report further disclosed that the urban inflation rate increased by 18.35 per cent (year-on-year) in June 2021 from 18.51 per cent recorded in May 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased 17.16 per cent June 2021 from 17.36 per cent in May 2021.
The composite food index rose by 21.83 per cent in June 2021 compared to 22.28 per cent in May 2021. For states, In June 2021, food inflation on year on year basis was highest in Kogi (30.34%), Enugu (25.18%) and Kwara (24.78%).
Bauchi stood at 18.97%, Rivers at 18.92% and Abuja at 17.09%. The three states recorded the slowest rise in year on year inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation (June 2021) was highest in Jigawa at 2.67%, Edo State at 2.43% and Cross River at 2.16% while Lagos (0.14%), Borno (0.06%) and Kwara (0.02% recorded the slowest rise in food inflation.