Nigeria’s headline inflation rate for September 2024 rose to 32.70 per cent after slowing consecutively in the previous two months of July and August.

This was according to the latest Consumer Price Index report from the National Bureau of Statistics.

It is a marginal increase of 0.55 per cent from the August 2024 figure of 32.15 per cent, reflecting ongoing price pressures across the country.

Year-on-year, inflation has surged by 5.98 percentage points compared to the 26.72 per cent recorded in September 2023.

The report read, “In September 2024, the Headline inflation rate was 32.70% relative to the August 2024 headline inflation rate of 32.15%. Looking at the movement, the September 2024 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.55% compared to the August 2024 Headline inflation rate.

“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 5.98% points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2023 (26.72%). This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in September 2024 when compared to the year-on year in the preceding year (i.e., September 2023).

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in September 2024 was 2.52%, which was 0.30% higher than the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.22%). This means that in September 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in August 2024.”

Food prices remain a key driver of inflation, with the food inflation rate climbing to 37.77 per cent in September 2024, a notable rise of 7.13 per cent from the 30.64 per cent recorded in the same period last year.

The increase in food inflation is largely attributed to rising prices of staples such as rice, maize, beans, and yams. Month-on-month, the food inflation rate also increased to 2.64 per cent in September 2024, up from 2.37 per cent in August.