Inflation Surges to 11.24% On Border Closure Impact.
By UMORU ABDULKADIR
The consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 11.24 percent (year-on-year) in September 2019, representing 0.22 percent higher than the rate recorded in previous month.
Inflation rate in August was 11.02 percent, making it the first rise in inflation rate after three months of consecutive declines.
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its report on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 noted that, “the country’s inflation rate, a measure of composite changes in the prices of consumer goods and services, increased by 11.24 percent in September from a year earlier compared with 11.02 percent in August.
A further look at the report shows that the food sub index, which accounts for more than half of the inflation basket, rose 13.51 percent in September from 13.17 percent surge recorded in the previous month, while the index that measures inflation of all items excluding farm produce increased by 8.94 percent in the review month as against 8.68 percent recorded in August.
On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.04 in September 2019, indicating a 0.05 per cent rate higher than rate recorded August 2019 ( 0.99) .
Similarly, the percentage change in the average compositeconsumer price index for the twelve months period ending September 2019over the average of the cpi of the previous twelve months period was 11.268 per cent, showing 0.003 per cent point from 11.271 percent recorded in August.
Recalled that on August 20, 2019, the President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the partial closure of Nigeria’s border with the Benin Republic to curtail smuggling of rice and other commodities and in the vein directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to restrict forex on importation of food items as part of measures to boost local production of rice and create market for local farmer with a view to achieving self-sufficiency in rice and other farm produce production.
The border closure has now started impacting the prices of commodities, resulting in a rise in inflation rate for the month on September. A journey to Iju Ishaga, market this morning by this writer showed that the price of items like rice, turkey, chicken have surged to a very high level. A rubber paint of rice was sold for as high as N1500 while a De Rica of rice was going for N300 compared with N1300 and N250 they were sold respectively before the border closure.
While chatting with one of the rice traders in the market, he said, though the market is now flooded with locally produced rice, the price is still very high. He disclosed the price of a bag of local rice is from N18, 000 and above even though the quality of the rice is still very low when compared to the foreign rice.
He lamented the loss of revenue due to low patronage from customers who complained bitterly about the price and quality of the local rice.
Meanwhile, while the impact of the partial border closure is being felt in Nigeria as shown in the September price index, the federal government on Monday, October 14, 2019 followed it up with a complete ban of all import and export of goods across the nation’s land borders.
Consumer prices in Nigeria rose at a faster pace in September following a recent closure of the country’s land borders with the Benin Republic to combat smuggling activities coupled with foreign exchange ban on food imports. This is the country’s fastest increase in four months
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