Nigerian inflation, unemployment jump

An aerial view of Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria. PHOTO | AFP

By AFP

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Nigeria’s inflation rose to a four-year high of more than 17 percent in February, while a rise in

joblessness left a third of the workforce unemployed at the end of 2020, the statistics office said Tuesday.

Year-on-year inflation was 17.33 percent in February after 16.47 percent in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, blaming increases in the cost of food.

The NBS also said Nigeria's unemployment rate rose to 33.3 percent in the three months through December, up from 27.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the last period the agency released labour-force statistics.

Food prices rose last month, especially for beef, after traders in northern Nigeria suspended deliveries to the populous south in protest at alleged killings and harassment of their kinsmen. The blockade has since been lifted.