Fuel Hike: Expert Forecasts Worse Inflation Indices, Tougher Times Ahead

As Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to a new 17-year high of 22.79 per cent in June 2023, experts have forecasted worse indices in months ahead with the latest fuel hike.

Naija News reported on Tuesday that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited (NNPCL) announced a new hike in the pump price of petrol.

This price hike, announced on Tuesday, comes in the wake of President Bola Tinubu’s removal of fuel subsidy on May 29th.

The NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mele Kyari, attributed the recent rise in petrol pump price from N540 to N617 per litre to market forces.

Reacting to the development, the President Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Laoye Jaiyeole, said the situation already leads to higher inflation.

He told The Punch that, “It is already leading to inflation. It is a tough time, no doubt, but what is critical is for us to begin to act quickly. Let me tell you something, in 2015, before the first inflation in 2016, we saw this coming, and at NESG, we gave them three scenarios.

“We asked that there are difficult decisions the nation needs to take, and we didn’t take them, we ran away from them; maybe if we had taken those decisions, it may not be as bad as this. Now the tough choices are being taken, and I must confess they are tough.

“Giving succor to those that are less privileged is one, but you know we cannot continue to share money, we have to boost production. By boosting production, it means we are going to ask ourselves what we are going to do about food and the productive sector. How do we ensure that we have electricity?”

According to him,  local refinery would be the best way to wade pressure on the exchange rate.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday disclosed that Nigeria’s inflation rate accelerated for the sixth consecutive time to 22.79 per cent in June 2023.

It was gathered that the inflation rate rose to a new 17-year high of 22.79 per cent in June 2023 from 22.41 per cent in the previous month.

NBS report read, “In June 2023, the Headline inflation rate rose to 22.79 per cent relative to May 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 22.41 per cent. Looking at the movement, the June 2023 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.38 percentage points when compared to May 2023 headline inflation rate

On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 4.19 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2022, which was 18.60 per cent. This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in June 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., June 2022).”