Nigerian inflation slowed to a ten-month low in October, giving the central bank scope to leave interest rates on hold next week. Consumer prices increased 15.99% from a year earlier, compared with 16.63% in September, statistician-general Simon Harry told reporters Monday in Abuja, the capital. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of seven economists was 16.2%. While inflation has exceeded the 9% ceiling of the central bank’s target band for more than six years, the sustained slowdown in price-growth may give the monetary policy committee room to hold rates and aid the economy’s rebound from last year’s coronavirus-induced contraction. Economic output in Africa’s biggest oil producer has lagged the pace of population expansion of about 2.6% every year since crude prices fell in 2015.
SOURCE: BUSINESS DAY LIVE
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