President Bola Tinubu has estimated that the 2025 budget will lead to a decline in inflation from the current rate of 34.6% to 15% next year.
He made this statement during his presentation of the N47.9 trillion budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
Additionally, the President noted that the exchange rate is expected to improve from approximately N1,700 per dollar to N1,500.
“The Budget projects inflation will decline from the current rate of 34.6% to 15% next year while the exchange rate will improve from approximately N1,700 per dollar to N1,500 and base crude oil production assumption of say 2.06 and 2.5 million barrels per day,” Tinubu said.
He said the budget projections are based upon observations such as reduction of petroleum products importation, increased export of finished petroleum products, bumper harvest driven by enhanced security, and reducing reliance on food imports, among others.
Tinubu listed highlights of the budget to include defence and security – N4.91tn, infrastructure – N4.06tn, health – N2.4tn, and education – N3.5tn, among others.
Nigerians are grappling with economic hardship following the incessant increase in inflation and the volatile exchange rate that has seen the dollar exchange as high as N1,700 in recent days.
On Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 34.60% in November 2024 from 33.88% in October 2024.
The November inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72% points compared to the October 2024 inflation rate, according to NBS’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.
“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 6.40% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (28.20%). This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in November 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., November 2023),” the Bureau said.
Significantly, food inflation rate in November 2024 was 39.93% on a year-on-year basis, 7.08% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (32.84%).
