Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 18.17 percent on March amid accelerating increase in food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

The NBS says the consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 0.82 percent points in March.

This is higher than the 17.33 percent rate recorded in February.

Increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the headline index.

On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 1.56 per cent in March 2021.

This is 0.02 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in February 2021 (1.54 per cent).

Food inflation also increased by 1.16 percent on a year-on-year basis from 21.79 percent in February to 22.95 in March.