Nigeria’s Rising Inflation Can Worsen Poverty Situation – Muda Yusuf

The Director General, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Muda Yusuf, has said that the spike in the country’s inflation can worsen the poverty situation in the country.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had on Tuesday released the January Consumer Price Index (CPI), which shows that inflation rose to 12.13% in January, 2020.

The food component of the CPI increased from 14.67% in December 2019, to 14.85% in January 2020.

Yusuf told THE WHISTLER that the country’s rising inflation was alarming. He added that the poor were the ones who would suffer the most, as the food inflation index rose to 14.85%.

“Nigeria’s rising inflation is not good for the economy, as it increases operating cost for businesses, production cost and therefore reduce the profit margin of domestic businesses. The rising inflation has weakened the purchasing power of Nigerians and could further aggravate their poverty situation.”

He said that the “welfare of Nigerians is adversely affected, considering the breakdown of the inflation, food inflation is much higher than the core inflation.”

According to him, “This means that for the poor people in the country, increasing cost of food can have adverse effect on their poverty state, and it is something the government needs to worry about.”

“The poor will suffer more as they are the first recipients of the impact and more importantly, the food component of the inflation report is even rising higher,” the DG added.