Nigeria’s inflation hit 16.47%, all-time high in 33 months.
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Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, Minister of Finance
Headline inflation in the Federal Republic of Nigeria has risen to 16.47 per cent, with its attendants’ gross depletion in the peoples purchasing power and its effect in nearly all facets of human endeavours.
The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on Tuesday made the obvious condition formally known in an announcement that Nigeria’s headline inflation in January 2021, rose to 16.47 per cent and the bureau noted it was the highest since the past 33 months.
According to the NBS bulletin, Inflation soared at 15.75 per cent in December 2020, and it was dubbed the highest level in 32 months.
On the December 2020 inflation record, NBS said it was with the 0.86 per cent month-on-month increase and it marked the 16th consecutive month that inflation would increase in Nigeria.
The level of inflation was triggered by the galloping rise in food prices as the food inflation rose to 20.57 per cent in January, from 19.56 per cent in December.
According to the NBS, Core Inflation rose to 11.85 per cent in January 2021, from 11.37 per cent in December.
Earlier in November, it touched 14.89 per cent.
The new increase signals that the current depression is deep-seated and an indication that there is a long way towards recovery for Africa’s largest economy.
Recalled that before the advent of COVID-19 in March 2020, the nation’s institutions saddled with monetary policies, foreign exchange management and those in charge of the capital market and its regulatory arm were already fidgeting with the economy as all the macro and microeconomic indices pointed to a harrowing economic recession.
Ostensibly by the second quarter of 2020, the nation actually slipped into its second recession in four years and by the third quarter of the same year the nation sunk into its worst economic recession in nearly four decades with recovery yet to be in sight.
No doubt the prevailing economic condition will impact air travel, tourism and hospitality. Needs not to be told that players in each of these subsectors must form a formidable front and offer a well thought out roadmap out of the woods to the government in order to mitigate the harrowing effect of the present economic realities on their businesses.
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