Dr Aminu Usman, a lecturer at the Kaduna State University, says that Nigeria’s inflation rate will likely increase in the coming months.
Usman, a lecturer at the Department of Economics, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the increase may occur due to the onset of the rainy season and as food stock began to dry up.
He spoke against the backdrop of the recent Inflation Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for April 2022.
According to the report, the inflation rate increased to 16.82 per cent on a year-on-year basis in April 2022.
“We might see an upward movement on the inflation rate in the coming months as the rains settled and food stock begins to dry up.
“Also, excessive and uncontrolled spending by politicians prosecuting campaigns may contribute.’’
Usman explained that inflation in Nigeria had been fluctuating around the upper side of two digits depending on the time, local and international economic conditions.
He said that a major component of the inflation was the food inflation owing to low levels of income and poverty.
“It is estimated that more than 70 per cent of the household income of the average Nigerian is spent on food alone.
“Such that any increase or decrease in general food prices would have a positive-negative impact on the rate of inflation respectively.
“We noticed that in April, the Price of local paddy rice remained stable while that of maize came down by about an average of N4,000 per bag.
“This rather sharp drop in the price of maize will positively impact the inflation rate for the month,’’ he said. (NAN)
