The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said the steady increase in headline inflation from 15.60 per cent in January to 20.77 per cent in September was consistent with global trends.
Emefiele said this at the 57th Annual Bankers Dinner, organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers Nigeria, on Friday, in Lagos.
The dinner had the theme, “Radical Responses to Abnormal Episodes: Time for Innovative Decision-making” was appropriate and well-timed.
He also said headline inflation soared to 20.77 per cent in September, indicating eight consecutive months of an uptick, and that the upward momentum was after a successive period of decline in 2021, due to balanced monetary policy actions.
He said upside pressure on consumer inflation re-emerged during the year, as global conditions complicated existing local imbalances to undermine price stability.
“Food remains the major component of the domestic consumer price basket. The annualised uptick in headline inflation mirrors the 6.21 percentage points upsurge in food inflation to 23.34 per cent in September.
“During this period, core inflation also resumed an upward movement from 13.87 per cent in January to 17.60 per cent.