Unrelenting inflation is set to rise for the ninth consecutive time to 27.57 per cent September. All fingers are pointing at receding value of the naira as major culprit.
This increase will represent the highest figure ever reached in the last 18 years, since September 2005.
“Nigeria’s headline inflation is expected to increase again in September, rising to 27.57 per cent from 25.80 per cent in August”, said Bismarck Rewane, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited.”
Price increases were most notable in the food basket, predominantly commodities with high import content such as flour, semovita, noodles, and sugar.
“With prices rising, fingers are pointing towards the exchange rate as the major inflation culprit. The naira crossed the psychological threshold of N1,000/$ in the parallel market, pushing up imported inflation despite the relative stability in global food prices. The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) food price index was relatively flat at 121.5 points (pts) in September.”, said Rewane in the FDC Economic Splash current edition.
He said, apart from the languishing naira, there are other inflation-stoking factors including higher logistics costs and money supply growth (36 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), saying the price of diesel, the major fuel used by trucks for logistics and distribution purposes, surged to a record high of N1,030/litre during the period.
