The consumer price index, which measures how high or low prices of goods and services in the country are has increased to 18.17 percent in March against the 17.33 percent recorded in February.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics report published on Thursday, the March data is the highest yet since January 2017 when inflation jumped to 18.72 percent.
The food inflation also rose by 1.16 percent on a year-on-year basis from 21.79 percent in February to 22.95 in March.
The NBS further said in the report that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Potatoes, yam, and other tubers, Meat, Vegetables, Fish, Oils, and fats, and fruits.
Increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline index, the report said.
On a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased to 1.56 percent in March, indicating 0.02 percent points higher than the rate recorded in the previous month which was 1.54 percent.
The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the twelve months period ending March 2021, over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period, was 14.55 percent, representing a 0.50 percent point higher than the 14.05 percent recorded in February.
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