Nigerian inflation rate rose from 18.6 percent  to 19.64 percent within a month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The 1.82 percent leap is an all-time high in 17 years, which the bureau blamed on rising food prices and other Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Also listed as contributors were the increases in the costs of gas and liquid/solid fuel; hike in road/air transport fares; garments, cleaning, repair and clothing.

The World Bank however attributed the upward swing to government’s lackadaisical attitude to check the trend.

A former Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Muda Yusuf, lamented the situation, which he described as worrisome.

According to Nairalytics, a web portal that publishes Nigeria’s historical macroeconomic data, the last time inflation soared above 19.64 percent was September 2005 when it rose to 24.32 percent.

The latest inflation data is captured in the July CPI Report released by the NBS.

The Bureau said: “This is 2.27 percent points higher when compared with the rate recorded in July 2021, which was 17.38 percent.

“This showed that the headline inflation rate increased in the month of July 2022 when compared to the same month in the previous year of July 2021.

“This means that in the month of July 2022 the general price level was 2.26 percent higher than in July 2021, NBS said, adding that on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 percent, which is 0.001 per cent higher than the 1.816 per cent recorded in June 2022″.

The NBS said the percentage change in the average CPI for the 12 month period ending July 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period, was 16.75 percent, showing a 0.46 percent increase compared to 16.30 percent recorded in July 2021.

According to the report, increases were recorded in all classifications of Individual Consumption by Purpose functions and all-items basis.

It put the urban inflation rate on a year-on-year basis in July at 20.09 percent (2.08 per cent higher, compared with the 18.01 percent recorded in July last year).

The report noted that on a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.82 percent last month, representing 0.0002 per cent decline, compared with the 1.82 percent recorded in the previous month.

The NBS report reads in part: “The corresponding twelve-month average for the urban inflation rate was 17.29 percent in July 2022.

 This was 0.40 percent higher compared to the 16.89 per cent reported in July 2021. The rural inflation rate in July 2022 was 19.22 percent on a year-on-year basis; this was 2.47 percent higher compared to the 16.75 percent recorded in July 2021. On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.811 percent, up by 0.002 per cent compared to June 2022 (1.809 percent).