Companies and consumers are currently having trouble keeping up with high prices of everyday items and commodities as inflation remains on the increase. The situation is dire for everyone and there seems to be no end in sight. FEMI ADEKOYA writes on how energy costs and inflation remain a challenge for local production.
The International Monetary Fund has also projected that the present inflationary pressure will continue until 2023, leading to further concerns over a consequent global economic recession. In the same vein, the IMF increased the inflation projection for advanced economies to 5.7% and 8.7% for emerging market and developing economies.
Input cost pressures are not expected to ease soon. According to a January 2022 PwC Pulse Survey, 68% of manufacturers agree that inflation is likely to remain elevated at the end of 2022. To offset increasing input costs—of everything from raw materials to parts and components to energy—nearly three-quarters of industry leaders expect they’ll need to increase prices of their goods and services through 2022, presumably to protect both gross and profit margins.
They noted that apart from the need for ardent management of global peace, the series of global occurrences and the lessons learnt demand that national governments should begin to take drastic measures to manage these phenomena proactively going forward. The chamber noted that it was obvious that the government’s intervention so far has not impacted the inflationary pressures that keep rising .
Citing the states’ inflation rates, she said the three lowest rates were recorded in Borno, Jigawa, and Kaduna, while the highest rates were found in Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, and Kogi States. Almona emphasised the need for a mix of fiscal and monetary policies to tackle the core drivers of the inflation scourge in Nigeria.