From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Nigeria’s galloping inflation which was triggered by COVID-19 pandemic, rising insecurity, and food price continued its upward swing in November perching at 14.89 per cent (year-on-year).
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a statement yesterday, said the latest inflation figure represents 0.66 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in October 2020 (14.23 per cent). The percentage change is in the average composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the twelve months period ending November 2020 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period which was 12.92 per cent, representing a 0.26 percentage point increase over 12.66 per cent recorded in October 2020. However, a capital market professor and former Commissioner of Information, Imo State, Uche Uwaleke, observed that the rise in headline inflation by 14.89 per cent in November from 14.23 per cent in October in spite of the drop in core inflation over the same period clearly shows that the major challenge remains rising cost of food as food inflation jumped from 17.38 per cent in October to 18.30 per cent in November. “The NBS inflation numbers for the month of November is a reflection of the lingering impact of COVID’19 as well as legacy issues of insecurity in many parts of the country, border closure, increase in VAT, pump price of fuel, electricity tariffs and exchange rates.
Meanwhile, NBS has also disclosed that the total value of capital importation into Nigeria stood at $1,461.49 million in the third quarter of 2020, an increase of 12.86 per cent compared to Q2 2020 and -74.03 per cent decrease compared to the third quarter of 2019.