As recession continues, inflation rate rises to 14.89%

• Border closure, festive period pushing food prices up — Experts

Inflation rate rose to 14.89 percent in November, 2020 higher than the 14.23 percent recorded in October, 2020.

Experts told Daily Trust that rising prices of goods and services may not be unconnected to continued closure of the nation’s land borders and the yuletide season.

Consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation, released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed that food inflation rose sharply by 18.30 percent in November 2020 compared to 17.38 percent in October 2020.

“This rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, Meat, Fish, Fruits, Vegetables and Oils and fats,”

On the other hand, the ‘’all items less farm produce’’ or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 11.05 percent in November 2020, down by 0.09 percent when compared with 11.14 percent recorded in October 2020.

Mosope Arubayi and Ibukun Omoyeni, both analysts at Vetiva Research, in their review of the inflation figures noted that for the first time since 2016, consumer prices are set to undergo 12 consecutive months of inflationary pressures in a given year.

They said: ‘In both years, we witnessed adjustment in the exchange rates however, this year has been more peculiar, with the disruptions in the agricultural sector and removal of fuel subsidies.”

They further explained that the build-up in year end festive demand informed their projected rise in inflation.

Recently, the President raised optimism on the possible reopening of land borders.

The experts said while this could provide some respite for food inflation in 2021, “we do not expect any significant impact in the current year, given the existent restrictions on land borders and year-end festivities.”