The naira gained ground against the US dollar in both the official and parallel markets.
This is despite the fact that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate, released today by the National Bureau of Statistics, increased to 28.20% in November, up from 27.33 in October 2023.
In November, the overall inflation rate increased to 28.20%, exceeding the October 2023 rate of 27.33%. This represents a 0.87% month-on-month increase.
When compared to November 2022, the year-on-year headline inflation rate was significantly higher, rising by 6.73% points from the previous year’s rate of 21.47%.
- The exchange rate between the naira and dollar rose to N889.86/$1 on Friday at the official market.
- This represents an N11.55 gain or a 1.3% increase in the local currency compared to the N901.41 it recorded on Thursday.
- The intraday high recorded was N1126.53/$1, while the intraday low was N700.00/$1, representing a wide spread of N426.53/$1.
- According to data obtained from the official NAFEM window, forex turnover at the close of the trading was $41.66 million, representing a 71.70% decrease compared to the previous day.
Similarly, the naira equally recorded gain at the parallel forex market where forex is sold unofficially, the exchange rate closed at N1245/$1 as against N1260/$1 it quoted on Thursday, representing 1.20%, while peer-to-peer traders quoted around N1216.32/$1.
November Inflation rate
Nigerian inflation rose to 28.20% in November from 27.33% in October, highlighting the country’s worsening cost of living crisis.
The National Bureau of Statistics revealed in its new ‘Consumer Price Index: November 2023’ released on Friday that headline inflation increased by 0.87 percentage points in November to a new record high in nearly two decades.
It was noted that the headline inflation rate in November 2023 increased to 28.20% compared to the headline inflation rate in October 2023, which was 27.33%.
- Looking at the movement, the November 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.87% points when compared to the October 2023 headline inflation rate.
- On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.73% points higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2022, which was 21.47%.
- This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in November 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., November 2022).
- On a month-month basis, headline inflation in November 2023 was 2.09%. Which was 0.35 percentage points higher than what was recorded in October (1.73%).
