Consumer prices for the month of December 2019 increased by 0.13 percentage points from the preceding month which stood at 11.85% 1. This rate was 0.54% percentage points higher than December 2018. The rise in inflation was driven by a rise across all components, with the core sub-index growing by 0.34% to 9.33% and food sub-index by 0.19% to 14.67% over a month. The rise in inflation was driven in part by an increase in access to credit, as indicated in the Central Bank of Nigeria Credit Condition Survey. The survey conducted notes that there was an increase in supply of secured loans to households which was expected to increase in Q1 2020 as well as a rise in overall credit supply to the corporate sector2. Inflation is expected to rise in the coming months given that the closure of the Nigeria-Benin border has driven food prices upwards resulting in cost-push inflation. In addition, the CBN’s directive to commercial banks to give out 60% of their deposits as loans to the real sector could potentially lead to demand-pull inflation. Given that food inflation is at the core of the rising inflation, initiatives should be put in place by both state and non-state actors to increase the productivity of farmers in order to transition farmers from smallholder to large-scale farming.
February 11, 2020
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 04)
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 33)
Available
reports from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), suggests a
significant reduction in the cost incurred to produce one barrel of crude oil for
the past two years. Specifically, the cost of production reduced by 71 percent
from $78 as at August 2015, to $23 per barrel as at August 2017.
This may be attributable to moderations in operational expenditures, following
repairs and restructuring in the oil region.
Oil Revenues, Institutions And Macroeconomic Performance In Nigeria
The paper presents an elaborate
econometric analysis of a number of key macroeconomic indicators to oil revenue
and examines the results of oil revenue fluctuations.