Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 34.8% in December 2024, up from 34.6% in November, driven by increased demand for goods and services during the festive season.
This was revealed in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for December 2024, published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS stated: “In December 2024, the Headline inflation rate was 34.80% relative to the November 2024 Headline inflation rate of 34.60%. Looking at the movement, the December 2024 Headline inflation rate showed a marginal increase of 0.20% compared to the November 2024 Headline inflation rate.”
Explaining the surge, the bureau attributed the increase to heightened demand during the holiday period, saying, “This was due to December festive period increases in demand for goods and services.”
On a year-on-year comparison, the Headline inflation rate was significantly higher by 5.87% compared to December 2023, when it stood at 28.92%. According to the report: “This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in December 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2023).”
However, a month-on-month analysis revealed a slight deceleration in the rate of price increases. “On the contrary, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in December 2024 was 2.44%, which was 0.20% lower than the rate recorded in November 2024 (2.64%),” the NBS explained.
“This means that in December 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is slightly lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in November 2024.”