Food Inflation Drops To 21.83%

Despite predictions that the country’s inflation rate will rise in June, the National Bureau of Statistics has said that prices dropped by 17.75 percent in June.

This is a 0.18 per cent decrease compared to May inflation which was 17.93 per cent.

The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index report for June released on Friday.

Inflation has surged from 16.47 per cent per cent in January to 17.33 per cent in February, 18.17 per cent and 18.12 per cent in March and April.

The NBS said, “The Consumer Price Index, (CPI) which measures inflation (rate of change in the increase in prices) increased by 17.75 percent (year-on-year) in June  2021. This is 0.18 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in May 2021 (17.93) per cent.”

But NBS revealed that the composite food index rose by 21.83 per cent in June 2021 compared to 22.28 percent in May 2021.

“This implies that food prices continued to rise in June 2021 but at a slightly slower speed than it did in May 2021,” NBS said.

The Bureau said the average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the twelve-month period ending June 2021 over the previous twelve-month average was 19.72 percent, 0.54 percent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in May 2021 (19.18 per cent).

The surge in food prices was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, miilk, cheese and eggs, fish, soft drinks, vegetables, oils and fats and meat.