Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index has been projected by the International Monetary Fund to hit 16.1 per cent in 2022.
This was contained in a tabular illustration in the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa released last week, which was published on its website.
The projected 16.1 per cent will be the highest in the country since October 2021 when it was 16.63 per cent.
Recent figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index rose to 15.92 per cent in March.
This new rate is the highest the country has recorded since October 2021, when the inflation rate hit 15.99 per cent.
The rise in the inflation rate in March shows that Nigeria is not left out in the global inflation surge.
However, the IMF added that the inflation rate would drop to 13.1 per cent by 2023.
In its World Economic Outlook report, the IMF warned about the effects of inflation.
The report read in part, “In sub-Saharan Africa, food prices are also the most important channel of transmission, although in slightly different ways.
Wheat is a less important part of the diet, but food, in general, is a larger share of consumption.
“Higher food prices will hurt consumers’ purchasing power, particularly among low-income households, and weigh on domestic demand. Social and political turmoil, most notably in West Africa, also weighs on the outlook.”
Recently, the World Bank said COVID-19 pandemic-induced inflation pushed about 23 million Nigerians into a food crisis in 2021, especially in regions battling conflicts.
