Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Falls to Lowest in a Year in May
- Rate is still almost double upper end of central bank’s range
- Prices increased 1.9% from a month earlier, agency says
A man arrives to buy fuel at petrol filling station in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday, March 22, 2017. Nigeria currency, naira, hits six month high against dollar, exchanges at 410 naira to one dollar on Wednesday yet the prices of commodities remain very high.
Nigeria’s inflation rate fell for a fourth straight month in May, dropping to the lowest in a year as growth in prices of most goods except food eased.
Inflation in Nigeria, which vies with South Africa as the continent’s largest economy, slowed to 16.25 percent from 17.2 percent in April, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in an emailed report. The median of 15 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for 16 percent. Prices rose 1.9 percent in the month as the cost of beef and bread increased.