NBS puts inflation rate at 12.9% in June

The nation’s inflation rate inched by 0.2 from the 12.7 per cent in May to 12.9 in June, according to latest figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This is contained in a statement issued by Dr Yemi Kale, the Statistician-General of the Federation on Wednesday in Abuja. According to the statement, the monthly change in the composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) is due to persistent change in the prices of some farm produce and the increase in electricity tariff.
It said that the change was also as a result of the increase in the cost of some recreation and sporting services, catering services, and miscellaneous services. The urban inflation rate stood at 15.0 per cent in June as against 14.1 per cent recorded in May. It said that the rural inflation rate was 11.4 per cent for June, while the May figure stood at 11.7 per cent.
“The Urban All Items Index (AII) increased by 1.5 per cent on month-on-month, while the corresponding rural index increased by 0.8 per cent, when compared with the preceding month. The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12-month period ending June over the average of the CPI for the 12-month period 2011 was 11.3 per cent. The corresponding 12-month year-on-year average percentage change for urban and rural indices was 11.1 and 11.6 respectively,’’ NBS said. According to the bureau, pricing and weighting were the two basic parameters used to arrive at the CPI.
It added that 10,534 officers were used to collate the data for the CPI monthly, while 740 product specifications were priced across the rural and urban areas of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. The statement said that the average price of each item was computed for each sector for each state and the FCT and used for index computation.