Statistician-General of the Federation, Simon Harry, says the present fuel crises being experienced across the nation may have adverse effects on the inflation rate.

Mr Harry spoke on Tuesday in Abuja, at a media conference to announce the January 2022 Consumer Price Index (CPI).

He said it would create an artificial shock in the economy and that the shock was capable of shaking the economy.

Mr Harry explained that transporters will take advantage of the situation by increasing costs of transportation, which he said will affect the selling price of commodities.

“So that gives us a negative signal that is capable of affecting not just inflation rate, but also other macroeconomic variables such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and even the unemployment rate.

“I can, however, assure you that certainly, it is not the best for the economy and if we must maintain a stable macroeconomic environment, this kind of crisis certainly is not the best for it is not needed,” he said.

He, however, said that the February inflation rate could not be predicted based on the present fuel crisis as the numbers were still being collected.

On the present rate, the statistician-general said that CPI for January was 15.60 per cent from 15.63 per cent recorded in December 2021.

However, on a year-on-year basis, it was 0.87 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in January 2021 (16.47) per cent.

Mr Harry said that the headline index increased by 1.47 per cent in January, 0.34 per cent points lower than 1.82 per cent recorded in December 2021.

(NAN)