…As stakeholders calls for state of emergency on Energy and power sector
…Key inflation drivers not receding — Expert
By Seun Ibiyemi and Matthew Dennis
Nigeria’s inflation rate has climbed to 26.72 percent, marking a 0.92 percent increase from the previous month’s 25.80 percent.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this on Monday via its latest Consumer Price Index report for September 2023. It was shared on the X (formerly Twitter) handle of NBS.
The upsurge in inflation is mainly linked to the removal of petrol subsidies and the devaluation of the official exchange rate, both exerting substantial impacts on consumer prices.
It said, “September 2023, the headline inflation rate increased to 26.72 percent relative to the August 2023 headline inflation rate which was 25.80 percent.
“Looking at the movement, the September 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.92 percentage points when compared to the August 2023 headline inflation rate.
“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.94 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2022, which was 20.77 percent.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in September 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year.”
In a swift response, the Director/CEO Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf said that persistent inflationary pressures in the Nigerian economy continue to be a major cause for concern, especially because of the acceleration effect on poverty. Purchasing power had continued to slump over the past few months.
Headline inflation rose to 26.7 percent in September as against 25.8 percent in August. Food inflation maintained its uptrend rising to 30.64 percent in September. Economic growth may remain subdued while the risk of stagflation heightens
Dr. Muda said, “Key inflation drivers are not receding, if anything, they have become even more intense.
“These factors include the depreciating exchange rate, surging transportation costs, logistics challenges, forex market illiquidity, astronomical hike in diesel cost, climate change, insecurity in farming communities and structural bottlenecks to production.
“These are largely supply side issues. Elevated inflationary pressures also aggravate pressure on production costs, weakens profitability, erodes shareholders value and dampens investors confidence.
“Not many producers or service providers can transfer cost increases to their consumers. The implication is that manufacturers and other investors are taking a big hit.”
He added that, “Products with high demand elasticity are more vulnerable. Tackling inflation requires urgent government intervention to address the challenges bedeviling production, productivity and insecurity in the economy.
“The real sector of the economy needs to be incentivised to ensure moderation of production costs.
“The government could tweak the tariff policies by granting concessionary import duty on intermediate products for industrialists. The same is true of investors in logistics sector.
“The effects of high energy cost is devastating, we need a declaration of state of emergency in the energy and power sectors.
“It will be very difficult to tame inflation if we do not fix power, logistics and forex. Regrettably, there are no quick fixes in these areas. But it is important to prioritise these issues and drive accelerated progress with the right strategies.”