Anecdotal evidence shows that Nigeria’s inflation cannot be declining when global and regional inflation rates are rising, Bismarck Rewane, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Financial Derivatives Company (FadC) Limited said in a report weekend.
The United States (US) inflation increased marginally by 0.1 per cent to 5.4 per cent while the United Kingdom (UK) spiked by 1.2 per cent to 3.2 per cent.
“Most sub-Saharan African countries under our review recorded higher inflation rates in September due to currency pressures and higher food and transportation costs.
“Then, why is Nigeria’s inflation falling at a time when the naira has crashed to an all-time low (N580/$), diesel is being sold at N350/litre and commodity prices are surging? When will the domestic inflation rate finally reach an inflection point? These are some of the pertinent questions on the mind of most analysts and investors”, Rewane wondered aloud.
Nigeria’s headline inflation declined again in September to 16.63 per cent from 17.01 per cent in August. This is the sixth consecutive monthly decline and an eight-month low. The principal inflation moderating factor is the base year effects. A notable trend however is that core inflation (inflation less seasonalities) increased by 0.33 per cent to 13.74 per cent and month-on-month inflation rose by 0.13 per cent to 1.15 per cent (14.77 per cent annualized).
