The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported an increase in Nigeria’s headline inflation to 34.60% in November 2024, marking a 0.72 percentage point rise from 33.88% in October. On a year-on-year basis, this represents a significant jump of 6.40 percentage points compared to 28.20% recorded in November 2023.
Month-on-month inflation, however, showed a marginal decline to 2.638% from 2.640% in October, signaling a slight slowdown in price increases.
Food inflation soared to 39.93% year-on-year, driven by spikes in the prices of staples like yam, maize, rice, palm oil, and frozen chicken. Month-on-month food inflation also rose to 2.98%, up by 0.05 percentage points from October’s 2.94%.
The report attributes the food inflation hike to higher costs across categories such as bread and cereals, fish, oils, dairy products, and meats.
Additionally, the average annual food inflation for the 12 months ending in November stood at 38.67%, marking an 11.58 percentage point increase from 27.09% in November 2023.
The NBS data underscores the ongoing economic challenges as rising food prices continue to exacerbate inflationary pressures in Nigeria.