Inflation rate rises to 19.6% in July, highest in 17years –NBS

 

.As cost of food increases

.Buhari to submit 2023 budget proposal to NASS September, says DG Budget Office

 

 

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), says Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 19.64 per cent on a year-on-year basis in July.

 

Prince Semiu Adeniran, the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said this in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July 2022 released by the bureau in Abuja on Monday.

 

Giving a breakdown of the report in a statement, Adeniran said that the CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living.

 

According to him, it is a core macroeconomic indicator used in the derivation of the inflation rate for policy, planning, and monitoring of an economy.

 

Adeniran said the report showed that in July 2022, on a year–on–year basis, the headline inflation rate was 19.64 per cent.

 

“This is 2.27 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021, which was 17.38 per cent.

 

“This shows that the headline inflation rate increased in July 2022 when compared to the same month in the previous year of July 2021.

 

“This means that in July 2022, the general price level was 2.26 per cent higher than in July 2021.’’

 

He said increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline index.

 

Adeniran said the increase in inflation was caused by an increase in food index attributed to the disruption in the supply of food products.

 

The statistician-general also said the increase in inflation was caused by an increase in the cost of transportation arising from the higher cost of energy.

 

According to him, the increase in the inflation rate was also due to an increase in import costs as a result of currency depreciation, as well as a general increase in the cost of production.

 

He said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 per cent, which was higher than the rate recorded in June 2022 at 1.816 per cent.

 

“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending July 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.75 per cent.

 

“This is showing a 0.46 per cent increase compared to 16.30 per cent recorded in July 2021.’’

 

Adeniran said the composite food index on a year-on-year basis was 22.02 per cent in July 2022, showing a rise compared to 21.03 per cent in July 2021.

 

He said the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Food products, potatoes, yam, and other tubers, meat, fish, oil, and fat.

 

The statistician-general said on a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index in July 2022 was 2.04 per cent lower than the 2.05 per cent recorded in June 2022.

 

“The index for all items less farm produce (Core inflation), which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 16.26 per cent in July 2022 on a year-on-year basis.

 

“This was higher when compared to 13.72 per cent recorded in July 2021. On a month-on-month basis, the core sub-index was 1.75 per cent in July 2022 higher when compared to 1.56 per cent recorded in June 2022.

 

He said the highest increases were recorded in prices of gas, liquid fuel, solid fuel, passenger transport by road, passenger transport by air, garments, cleaning, repair and hire of clothing.

 

Adeniran said on a year-on-year basis, in July 2022, the urban inflation rate was 20.09 per cent, 2.08 per cent higher compared to 18.01 per cent recorded in July 2021.

 

He said on a month-on-month basis the urban inflation rate was 1.82 per cent in July 2022, showing a decline compared to June 2022 at 1.82 per cent.

 

Adeniran said the rural inflation rate in July 2022 was 19.22 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which were 2.47 per cent higher compared to the 16.75 per cent recorded in July 2021.

 

“On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.811 per cent, which was higher compared to June 2022 at 1.809 per cent.’’

 

Adeniran said all Items Inflation for the states in July 2022 on a year-on-year basis was highest in Akwa Ibom with 22.88 per cent, followed by Ebonyi with 22.51 per cent, and Kogi with 22.08 per cent.

 

The statistician-general said the slowest rise was recorded in Jigawa with 16.62 per cent, followed by Kaduna State with 17.04 per cent and Borno with 18.04 per cent.

 

Adeniran said on a month-on-month basis, July 2022 recorded the highest increase in Adamawa with 2.87 per cent, followed by Abuja with 2.84 per cent, and Oyo State with 2.77 per cent.

 

“While Bauchi recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation with 0.82 per cent, followed by Kano State with 0.83 per cent and Niger State with 1.03 per cent.’’

 

He said Food Sub-index Inflation for the states in July 2022 on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kwara with 29.28 per cent, followed by Akwa Ibom with 27.22 per cent, and Kogi with 26.08 per cent.

 

The statistician-general said Kaduna State recorded the slowest rise in food inflation year-on-year with 17.16 per cent, followed by Jigawa with 17.46 per cent and Anambra with 19.25 per cent.

 

Adeniran said on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation sub-index was highest in Kwara with 3.90 per cent, followed by Delta with 3.61 per cent, and Benue with 2.94 per cent.

 

While he said Taraba, Gombe, and Niger recorded the slowest rise on a month-on-month inflation with 0.14 per cent, 0.94 per cent, and 1.13 per cent respectively.

. Buhari to submit 2023 executive budget proposal to NASS September –DG Budget Office

 

The 2023 executive budget proposal will be submitted to the National Assembly for considerations and approval in September, 2022, the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation(BOF), Mr Ben Akabueze has disclosed.

 

Akabueze who disclosed this at the commencement of training of MDAS On 2023 Budget preparation using GIFMIS-BPS in Abuja, on Monday, said the move was in pursuant to the President’s directive, and in a bid to get the Appropriation Bill passed and signed into law by 31st December 2022.

 

Represented by the Director of Expenditure, BOF, Mr Fabian Ogbu, the DG noted that the federal government was determined to ensure consistent and timely preparation, submission and approval of annual budgets as part of its Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms, “just as we have done for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 Budgets.”

 

To achieve this, he said, “we have already commenced a series of activities related to the process of preparing the 2023 Budget. These include a series of engagements and stakeholder consultations with key revenue generating agencies, civil society organisations (CSOs), the Nigerian Governors Forum, the National Executive Council (NEC), the National Assembly as well as the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

 

“The desired outcome of this training is to enable participants to refresh their knowledge, fine-tune skills and have access to the tools required to prepare and submit the 2023 budget on the GIFMIS-BPS with minimal errors.”

 

He told the participants that the government was counting on their commitment, cooperation and support to achieve this goal, adding that like in previous years, the Budget Office Helpdesk will be functional throughout the budget preparation period to provide any further assistance MDAs may require.

 

“I hereby urge you to take full advantage of these two days to ask all the questions you may have and learn as much as you can so that by the time you are through with the training, you are well able to prepare and submit your 2023 budget on the GIFMIS/PBS with minimal errors”, Akabueze stated.

 

According to him, the main goal of the training was to provide continuous learning to equip budget personnel with the requisite knowledge, skills and the tools they require to prepare and submit the 2023 Budget in a timely and efficient manner, pointing out that the budget is also intended to be in tandem with extant FGN policies and guidelines as articulated in the 2023 FGN Budget Call Circular and other relevant laws/regulations.

 

He however observed that the MDAs do not study the Budget Call Circular in detail and as such make mistakes that should ordinarily be avoided if they had complied with the relevant sections of the Budget Circular.

 

“We have accordingly issued the 2023 FGN Budget Call Circular ahead of this training programme to ensure that all issues and questions that participants may have are adequately addressed during the course of the training sessions. For the avoidance of doubt, we have the BOF Helpdesk running at full capacity currently to take care of all queries and questions that Budget Officers may have in the course of the preparation of their respective budgets”, he added.

 

Akabueze recalled that the Budget Office activated the GIFMIS-BPS in 2017, and has since then used the platform for service-wide preparation of the budgets, adding that every MDA has since then prepared and submitted its budget online and in “near realtime” using the GIFMIS-BPS application.

 

“This has helped to address some of the challenges that were experienced during budget preparation in prior years. For the 2023 budget preparation, we intend to maintain the use of the GIFMIS-BPS. Furthermore, we plan to leverage on some of your feedback and lessons learned from previous budget preparation exercises to improve your experience this year”, he stated.

 

Over 4,000 government personnel involved in budget preparation from about 900 MDAs are participating in the training programme which is expected to take place over two intense days, across, Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Gombe, Ibadan and Uyo, MDAS in Enugu zone will commence their own trainings from Wednesday to Saturday