THE impact of the floods that ravaged most parts of Nigeria, washing away farmlands and plants is still being calculated as the Composite Price Index (CPI) indicated that increased prices of food items upshot inflation to 11.7 per cent in October, even as the Gross Domestic Product grew by 6.48 per cent in the third quarter of 2012.
Meanwhile, the federal government has assured its citizen of adequate food despite the floods that has wrecked havoc on farmlands in the country.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development Alhaji Bukar Tijani also said President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the sum of 17.6billion for flood affected states to address the immediate challenges of displaced persons.
Tijani stated this yesterday in Jos during the flag off of food relief materials to families affected by the flood that engulfed the state recently at the Jos silo complex Zwan.
The minister further said in order to alleviate the problem of the flood victims president Jonathan through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has put in place a National Flood Recovery Food production plan this he said would ensure that the immediate food security needs of the area affected by the flood are addressed and double up production to ensure that National Food security is not threatened.
A statement made available by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday in Abuja read in part "In October 2012, the composite Consumer Price Index which measures inflation rose to 11.7 per cent year-on-year…The higher food prices continue to reflect the impact of recent floods," on food production and the "difficulty of moving food products to markets across the country."
GDP growth in the third quarter of this year is estimated at 6.48 per cent as against 7.37 per cent in the same quarter last year. Though the CPI rose by 0.88 per cent when compared to September 2012, "in October, the urban inflation rate was recorded at 15.3 per cent year- on- year, while the rural index recorded a 9.1 per cent year-on-year increase, relatively unchanged from September".
The statement added: "The impact of security concerns on agricultural production has eased significantly, the higher food prices continue to reflect the impact of recent floods on the production of farm produce, resulting difficulty of moving food products to markets across the country, coupled with higher demand for food items due to the just concluded Muslim festival".
With agriculture contributing about 40 per cent to the GDP, it still remains the greatest contributor to the economy, growing this year's quarter to 3.89 per cent, against a rate of 5.76 per cent in the third quarter of 2011, which is attributed to the flood disaster.
The NBS said despite increase in oil production, the contribution of the oil sector to the economy fell from 14.28 per cent to 13.42 per cent, thus the non-oil sector was "still the major driver of the economy", recording 7.55 per cent growth in the third quarter, compared to 8.76 per cent in the same quarter last year.
