The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the nation’s inflation has dropped by 0.37 per cent to 17.38 per cent in July, from 17.75 per cent recorded in June.

The NBS said this in its “Consumer Price Index (CPI) July 2021 Report” released on Tuesday in Abuja.

The new rate shows that the inflation has been on a steady decline for four consecutive months.

According to the report, the figure implies that prices continued to rise in July but at a slower pace than it did in June.

It also said increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose divisions that yielded the Headline Index.

On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased by 0.93 per cent in July. This was 0.13 percentage points lower than the 1.06 per cent recorded in June.

“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending July 2021 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 16.30 per cent, showing 0.37 per cent rise from 15.93 per cent recorded in June,” said the Bureau.

It added that urban inflation rate increased by 18.01 per cent (year-on-year) in July, from 18.35 per cent recorded in June, while the rural inflation rate increased by 16.75 per cent in July from 17.16 per cent in June.

On a month-on-month basis, it said the urban index rose by 0.98 per cent in July, but declined by 0.11 points against the rate recorded in June (1.09 per cent).

Similarly, it said the rural index rose by 0.87 per cent in July; however, it dropped by 0.15 points over the rate recorded in June (1.02 per cent).