Yuletide Sales Push Nigeria’s Inflation to 34.8%

Bolstered by demands synonymous with the festive season, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate clambered slightly to 34.80% in December 2024 from 34.60% in November 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.

The apex government data agency made this known in its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.

The December 2024 headline inflation rate showed a marginal increase of 0.20% compared to the November 2024 headline inflation rate. “This was due to December festive period increases in demand for goods and services,” the report stated.

“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.87% higher than the rate recorded in December 2023 (28.92%). This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in December 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (December 2023).”

Meanwhile, food inflation rate in December 2024 stood at 39.84% on a year-on-year basis, 5.91% higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2023 (33.93%).

The NBS said the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of items such as yam, water yam, sweet potatoes, beer, guinea corn, maize grains, rice, bread, cereals, fish, among others.

Food and commodity inflation have skyrocketed as Nigerians battle what can pass for the worst cost of living crisis since the country’s independence over six decades ago.

When President Bola Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s president in May 2023, Nigeria’s inflation rate was 22.41%. The inflation rate rose astronomically to 34.8% in December 2024, more than 12% higher, a development that economic wizards have attributed to Tinubu’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the forex rates.

On December 18, 2024, when Tinubu presented ₦49.7tn budget estimates before a joint session of the National Assembly, he said his team planned to bring down the country’s inflation rate to 15% in 2025, an ambition that economists described as aspirational and bullish.