TheCable

Food prices recorded a major decline in December, the latest Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday has shown.

According to the bureau, food inflation dropped 0.89 points to stand at 19.42 percent as against 20.31 percent recorded in November.

This is the first major decline in food inflation since it started increasing in November 2014.

In November, food inflation recorded the lowest month-on-month movement since September 2016.

Overall inflation also dropped from 15.90 percent in November to 15.37 percent in December.

The last time the nation’s food inflation figure was in this region was between January and February 2009 when it was put at 18.4 percent and 20 percent respectively.

“The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation ended the year 2017 with an increased by 15.37 percent (year-on-year) in December 2017.

“This was 0.53 percent points lower than the rate recorded in November (15.90) percent making it the eleventh consecutive disinflation (slowdown in the inflation rate though still positive) in headline year on year inflation since January 2017.”

In 2017, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, expressed hopes that the nation’s inflation figures would hit single digit in 2018.

Inflation rate had doubled after the economy slipped into its worst recession in 29 years in 2016.