Nigeria’s headline inflation rate slowed to 14.63% in September from 15.39% in August, data showed on Thursday. Despite this small dip, many citizens still struggle with high costs. "The common man is suffering. Everything has sky-rocketed," said Michael Udoariri. These stubborn price pressures remain a major worry before the national election.
ABUJA/LAGOS, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Nigeria's headline inflation rate slowed slightly last month, data showed on Thursday, but it remains stuck around 15% in annual terms and a concern for many citizens months before a national election.
Consumer inflation was at 14.63% year-on-year in September, down from 15.39% in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
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Stubborn price pressures are a test for President Bola Tinubu ahead of January's election, when he will seek a final four-year term.
"The common man is suffering. Everything has sky-rocketed," Michael Udoariri, a 44-year-old who works in an insurance company and is a father of three, told Reuters at a bus stop in Lagos while waiting to go to work.
He said soaring fuel costs had forced him to stop driving and switch to public transport.
The central bank surprised investors last month with a 350-basis-point interest rate cut to 23%, saying market rates had diverged from its benchmark rate and previous tightening measures had proven effective.
Tinubu took office in 2023 and made a series of economic reforms like cutting petrol subsidies and devaluing the currency to try to lift economic growth and bolster public finances.
But those reforms also spurred a cost-of-living crisis.
Economic growth has picked up, coming in at about 4.4% year-on-year in the second quarter, but it remains well below the 7% annual rate Tinubu has targeted by 2027.
Reporting by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja and Seun Sanni in Lagos; Editing by Alexander Winning and Ros Russell