March 15 (Lagos) - According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, inflation in the Country increased to 31.7% in February from 29.9% in January. That is a whopping 6% increase month over month.
Food inflation rose even faster and hit 37.92% in February from 35.41% in January, a month over month increase of 7% biting consumers hard and eroding peoples purchasing power further.
Core inflation which excludes food items and energy items came in at 25.13% in February from 23.58% in January.
The CBN's decision to increase its benchmark lending rate to 22.5% came in too late and is still low at this point. They will have to be much more aggressive in their approach and take this rate much higher if they are going to control this inflation monster.
This inflation monster has been created by the CBN policies of the past 8 years when they kept turning a blind eye towards the problem. The problem now is that the benchmark lending rate has to go to 30% levels and stay there for a few quarters. The other option the government has is to lower fuel prices which it tripled when it assumed office.
That tripling of the price is what accelerated food inflation because of increase in the transport costs and manufacturing costs since Nigerian manufacturing industries generate power through diesel and successive governments have failed in proving electricity to businesses or people in spite of spending billions of dollars on it.
reporting for easykobo.com on Friday, March 15 2024 from Lagos, Nigeria