James Emejo in Abuja

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, eased to 22.97 per cent in May compared to 23.71 per cent in April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

Year-on-year, headline inflation stood at 10.98 per cent (rebased estimate May 2024) lower than 33.95 per cent (2009 base year).

According to the May CPI figures, food inflation stood at 21.14 per cent year-on-year in May compared to 40.66 per cent in May 2024.

The NBS, however, cautioned that, “The significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year.”

Month-on-month, the food index increased to 2.19 per cent from 2.06 per cent in April.

The NBS attributed the moderate increase to increase to the “rate of decrease in the average prices of yam, avenger (ogbono/apon), cassava tuber, maize flour, fresh pepper, sweet potatoes, among others.

On the other hand, core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produces and energy, stood at 22.28 per cent year-on-year in May compared to 27.04 per cent in May 2024.

Month-on-month, the core index dropped to 1.10 per cent in May compared to 1.34 per cent in April.

Details later…

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