Inflation is the general rise in the prices of goods and services over time. The “inflation rate” is the rate at which the change in prices happens; this is usually expressed in percentages over time.
Alice Abegunde, a mother of three teenagers, does not understand the reason behind the constant increase in the price of rice, her children’s favourite food.
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“Every time I go to the market, they have added to the price of rice,” Abegunde, 44, a resident of Lagos State, says.
While Abegunde might not be able to connect the dot and blame the rice sellers for the rise in price, Emeka Johnson could, he knew times were going to be hard as inflations numbers kept rising and resolved to save more and spend less.
What Johnson does not know is that he is constantly losing money because the value of his money drops as inflation rises.
What is inflation?
It is the general rise in the prices of goods and services over time. The “inflation rate” is the rate at which the change in prices happens; this is usually expressed in percentages over time. For instance, if inflation goes up 10 percent than last year, it means purchases will cost 10 percent more than they did last year.
Basically, inflation reduces the value or usefulness of money; the higher inflation rises, the less your money is worth, in real terms as time goes by. Therefore, it is about your purchasing power, that is, how much your money can buy.
What causes inflation?
There are reasons why prices rise. First, when everyone suddenly develops a taste for beef, the price of beef will rise. This follows a basic law in economics that, higher demand for a product will push up its price. This is also called demand-pull inflation.
What this means is that when the demand for goods and services in the economy exceeds the economy’s ability to produce them, their short supply places upward pressure on prices and gives rise to inflation.
Another reason prices rise is that the cost of producing goods and services increases. Companies would usually respond to higher cost of production by increasing the price they sell their products; they do this to cover the extra cost they incurred while producing. This is known as cost-push inflation.
How is inflation measured in Nigeria?
Every month we hear news about new inflation rate or data but have you ever wondered how it is calculated? Nigeria uses a well-known indicator called the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the average change over time in prices of goods and services consumed by people every day.
In Nigeria, the CPI is calculated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and published every month. To calculate CPI, the NBS gets people to collect prices for thousands of items that an average Nigerian consumer buys such as food, prescription drugs, rent, petrol and many others. These items are grouped into categories called baskets. Every month, the NBS calculates the price changes of each item from the previous month and aggregates them to work out the rate for the CPI basket.
Who controls inflation?
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