Curbing Inflation In Nigeria

Inflation is defined as a general rise in the prices of
goods and services in a particular country resulting in the fall in the value of her money. This means that the currency is worth less than it used to be. Prices of goods and services will always go up or down, but if prices of most things are rising, that is inflation. That is when a naria or dollar can then no longer buy as much as it could in the  past.
Recently, analysts at Financial Derivation Company Limited (FDC) projected a headline inflation of 9.5 per cent for December 2015 in Nigeria. This is marginally higher than the 9.4 per cent recorded in November, which ranks Nigeria as the country with the 12th highest inflation rate in Africa.
According to the analysts, the 0.1 per cent increase estimated in the consumer price index is consistent with the moderate uptick recorded between November and December in both 2013 and 2014, the highest level since February 2013. In a note, the analysts said, “Inflation rate increased nine times out of the twelve months in 2015. Though the inflation rate may not be totally transient, a consistent, but transient trend becomes self-fulfilling over time.
They stated that the major factors contributing towards the rising price level in 2015 are cost-push in nature. These factors include exchange rate pressure, intermittent fuel scarcity, policy uncertainty and trade restrictions. In December, the naira depreciated significantly in the parallel market to an all-time low of N280 per dollar and being compounded now with shortages of imported products.
Inflation hits different people differently but if everyone could simply adjust to such changes each year, inflation would not be a problem. However, it bites harder on persons on a fixed income such as old persons living on pensions, when other people are making a great deal of money from inflation. Inflation occurs when consumers and governments have a large amount of money to spend, relative to the supply of things they want to buy, which is known as “excess demand”, meaning that potential purchasers bid against each other for scarce goods. This drives or pushes up the price of goods.
In the case of Nigeria, the problem seems to be the lack of the potential and political will to implement economic policies. Those in the position to make our economic policies. Those in the position to make our economic policies functional are ill-equipped and so cannot identify the many different factors that can reposition the economy from the direction of inflation.
Some frequent causes of inflation are deficit spending by governments-if a government  spends more than it takes in taxes, this puts extra money to work without taking a corresponding amount out of private consumption through taxes. In this way, the “money to spend” side of the inflationary balance is raised. Another cause is a shortage in important goods-bad storms resulting in a low harvest of grains can cause inflation by reducing the “supply of things” side of the inflationary balance.
Prolonged strike in a major industry and a cut in production of oil in order to force prices up reduce the supply of things and cause inflation. Monopolies, which allow one company or a group of companies to raise prices without having to worry that their customers will shift to another provider, also contribute to inflation. Similarly, trade restrictions between countries can give full or partial monopolies to local providers, since people cannot easily buy from producers in another country, and drive prices up.
Modern economies usually have some inflation and societies are not badly disturbed by low, regular inflation of less than 5 per cent a year. But when inflation gets higher than that, it has two bad effects: (1) it churns the society up, accelerating the rise and fall of people’s circumstances; social change accelerates, creating big winners and big losers in the process and (2) it diverts a good deal of people’s energy into figuring out how to circumvent the effects of inflation, rather than how to invest productively.
High levels of inflation cause terrible hardship and destroy everyone’s savings as effectively as if every bank in the country had failed. There was a remarkable worldwide development in the 1920s when most countries of the world witnessed a drastic drop in inflation. There were a variety of causes for the drop. A number of countries reduced their government’s   budget deficits which helped to cut inflation. Also, commodities such as oil remained reasonably cheap.
Another most important reason was that with the end of Cold War and with various initiatives to make world trade more free and open, companies faced worldwide competition, making it difficult for them to raise prices. Many countries at various times have run high levels of inflation in the past. For example, in 1994, China’s inflation rate was 21 per cent, Venezuea’s was 69 per cent, Turkey, 108 per cent, and Russia’s was 150 per cent and that of Brazil was 31.73 per cent. These levels of inflation caused terrible hardships to the people of the countries.
In later years, disinflation almost took on a life of its own, sweeping all countries along. Whatever the cause was, inflation in the United States was down to 2.1 per cent in mid-2003, a relatively low level compared with the years before. Of the countries mentioned, many have reduced inflation a great deal as China’s rate was down to 0.5 per cent, Brazil’s to 15.4 per cent and Russia’s to 14.0 per cent, while Turkey and Venezuela remained at 27.4 per cent and 31.9 per cent respectively.
Controlling inflation is a basic requirement for economic and social respect in countries. Being unable to find solution to inflation challenges has been a bane of  Nigerian government, which has robbed it one of the most claims to economic standing. A country with high inflationary index is a society without plans and with wasted energy. The economy would benefit and the people would prosper if inflation is reduced. This would be achieved when there are more manufactured goods, more food, more available medical care, more of everything and diversification from oil as the only economic or revenue earning resource and source.
Inflation occurs when goods are in short supply and money is readily available, so that many buyers chase few goods and drive prices high by bidding against each other. So, the Nigerian government should stand on its feet in ensuring that the current high level of inflation is reduced. It is unfortunate that the country has no clear and simple tool to combat inflation and other economic impediments. Something must be done now.

Shedie Okpara