The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has described the drop in the headline inflation for the month of September as “a sign of emerging improvement in the economic indices, which will sooner or later reflect in the actual market prices across the nation.”
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday released the inflation rate for September 2021.The report shows the inflation rate dropped from 7.1 per Cent in August to 16.63 per cent (year-on-year). This is 0.38 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in August 2021.
In a reaction to the NBS report, the President of the ACCI, Dr Al-Mujtaba Abubakar said the drop in the inflation rate is a welcome development and called on the government to push further in the efforts to bring inflation rate under single digit.
According to him, “The report is a commendable improvement but more work still need to be done. From 17 percent to 16 plus is an improvement that is not yet sufficient to reflect on the actual market situation.
“We take note of fiscal and monetary situation in the country and we submit that further reduction in the inflation rate will eventually be achieved when the cost of doing business is reduced and when excessive regulation and taxation of SMEs are addressed.”
He, however, urged NBS to expand the scope of its data collection for further capturing of realities of Nigerian economy.
Also reacting, Prof. Leo Ukpong, a professor of finance and the American University of Nigeria, said the drop is too small to affect prices in the market.
He said the 0.33% drop in the index is hardly noticeable by the average consumer. “The reason consumers may not feel the drop in inflation is because the average things that consumers buy is either not included in the basket of goods used in the calculation of the CPI, or at best very little is included in the index. The other reason is that sellers don’t normally reduce their retail prices quick even when wholesale prices drop. That is typical of Nigerian retailers,” he said.
