Nigeria’s inflation rate soared to 24.08% in July 2023, the highest in years, due to a lack of foreign money.
The July 2023 rate increased by 1.29% points over the previous month’s rate of 22.79%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Tuesday.
The CPI measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hiked the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which measures interest rates, from 18.5 percent to 18.75% on July 25, 2023.
The interest rate increase came amid rising food prices and growing transportation costs caused by the loss of a subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, with the price per litre rising from N184 to almost N600, a more than 200% increase.
The apex bank said “hiking the interest rate has made a lot of difference in moderating the rate of inflation”.
To address the country’s forex shortfall, with the dollar trading at more than N900 to the naira, Acting CBN Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, stated on Monday that the apex bank would take various steps in the coming days to enhance market liquidity.
