Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Increases To 24.08% Amid Forex Scarcity
In between shortage of foreign exchange, Nigeria’s inflation rate has increased to 24.08% in July 2023, the highest in years.
The July 2023 rate revealed a hike of 1.29% points when compared to the previous month’s which was 22.79%, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Tuesday.
The CPI measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.
On July 25, 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, from 18.5 percent to 18.75%.
The interest rate increase happened amid soaring food prices and rising cost of transportation occasioned by the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol.
The apex bank stated that “hiking the interest rate has made a lot of difference in moderating the rate of inflation”.
To fix the forex shortage in the country with a dollar exchanging at over N900 to the naira, Acting CBN Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, on Monday, said the apex bank would take some steps in the next few days to improve the liquidity in the market.
