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Institutional Determinants of Domestic Price Dynamics: Evidence from Food Inflation in Nigeria

Received: 23 August 2026     Accepted: 2 September 2026     Published: 20 September 2026
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Abstract

Food inflation is recognized as a major macroeconomic issue in Nigeria, significantly affecting household welfare, poverty reduction, and overall economic stability. Thus, provides valuable insights into how institutional factors, such as the CBN's monetary autonomy and regulatory quality, alongside monetary and fiscal policy measures, affect food inflation in Nigeria between 1997 and 2023. This is motivated by Nigeria's persistent and complex inflation issues, despite numerous monetary and fiscal policy efforts to ensure economic growth and stability. The datasets were gathered from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin, the National Bureau of Statistics, the World Bank, and the Chinn-Ito index, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, pre-estimation tests (unit root and cointegration tests), and least-squares estimation. The results showed that CBN’s monetary autonomy and regulatory quality contributed positively to food inflation in Nigeria during the study period. The contemporaneous positive effect of regulatory quality on food inflation is significant at the 5% level, indicating that a percentage increase in regulatory quality is associated with a 16.59% increase in food inflation during the study period. This finding highlights the ineffectiveness of institutional quality in reducing food inflation in Nigeria. The results further showed that the monetary policy rate has a positive effect on food inflation. Although this finding is not significant at the 5% level, it highlights the monetary policy rate's ineffectiveness as a tool for mitigating rising food prices. The effect of broad money supply on food inflation is mixed. While contemporaneous broad money supply negatively affects food inflation, its one-period lag has a positive and significant effect. The estimated parameter revealed that food inflation increases by 1.08% following a percentage increase in the one-period lag of the broad money supply. Additionally, the results showed that total government expenditure contributed positively to food inflation. This finding is not surprising, as increased government spending raises households' purchasing power, boosting aggregate demand for food and, in turn, raising food prices. The error correction coefficient (-0.6868) is negative and significant at the 5% level, indicating that distortions from the long run are corrected at a speed of 68.68% each year. Thus, we recommend that policymakers reinforce the CBN's autonomy in practice and strengthen the bank's inflation-targeting regime by explicitly defining its inflation goals to improve the precision of inflation forecasts and stabilize food prices.

Published in International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences (Volume 14, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18
Page(s) 372-382
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Institutional Quality, Food Inflation, Monetary Autonomy, Regulatory Quality, Government Expenditure, Nigeria

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Ozigbu, J. C., Ezekwe, C. I., Okofu, L. I. (2026). Institutional Determinants of Domestic Price Dynamics: Evidence from Food Inflation in Nigeria. International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 14(5), 372-382. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18

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    ACS Style

    Ozigbu, J. C.; Ezekwe, C. I.; Okofu, L. I. Institutional Determinants of Domestic Price Dynamics: Evidence from Food Inflation in Nigeria. Int. J. Econ. Finance Manag. Sci. 2026, 14(5), 372-382. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18

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    AMA Style

    Ozigbu JC, Ezekwe CI, Okofu LI. Institutional Determinants of Domestic Price Dynamics: Evidence from Food Inflation in Nigeria. Int J Econ Finance Manag Sci. 2026;14(5):372-382. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18,
      author = {Johnbosco Chukwuma Ozigbu and Christopher Ifeanyi Ezekwe and Lucky Igwebuike Okofu},
      title = {Institutional Determinants of Domestic Price Dynamics: Evidence from Food Inflation in Nigeria},
      journal = {International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences},
      volume = {14},
      number = {5},
      pages = {372-382},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijefm.20261405.18},
      abstract = {Food inflation is recognized as a major macroeconomic issue in Nigeria, significantly affecting household welfare, poverty reduction, and overall economic stability. Thus, provides valuable insights into how institutional factors, such as the CBN's monetary autonomy and regulatory quality, alongside monetary and fiscal policy measures, affect food inflation in Nigeria between 1997 and 2023. This is motivated by Nigeria's persistent and complex inflation issues, despite numerous monetary and fiscal policy efforts to ensure economic growth and stability. The datasets were gathered from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin, the National Bureau of Statistics, the World Bank, and the Chinn-Ito index, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, pre-estimation tests (unit root and cointegration tests), and least-squares estimation. The results showed that CBN’s monetary autonomy and regulatory quality contributed positively to food inflation in Nigeria during the study period. The contemporaneous positive effect of regulatory quality on food inflation is significant at the 5% level, indicating that a percentage increase in regulatory quality is associated with a 16.59% increase in food inflation during the study period. This finding highlights the ineffectiveness of institutional quality in reducing food inflation in Nigeria. The results further showed that the monetary policy rate has a positive effect on food inflation. Although this finding is not significant at the 5% level, it highlights the monetary policy rate's ineffectiveness as a tool for mitigating rising food prices. The effect of broad money supply on food inflation is mixed. While contemporaneous broad money supply negatively affects food inflation, its one-period lag has a positive and significant effect. The estimated parameter revealed that food inflation increases by 1.08% following a percentage increase in the one-period lag of the broad money supply. Additionally, the results showed that total government expenditure contributed positively to food inflation. This finding is not surprising, as increased government spending raises households' purchasing power, boosting aggregate demand for food and, in turn, raising food prices. The error correction coefficient (-0.6868) is negative and significant at the 5% level, indicating that distortions from the long run are corrected at a speed of 68.68% each year. Thus, we recommend that policymakers reinforce the CBN's autonomy in practice and strengthen the bank's inflation-targeting regime by explicitly defining its inflation goals to improve the precision of inflation forecasts and stabilize food prices.},
     year = {2026}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Institutional Determinants of Domestic Price Dynamics: Evidence from Food Inflation in Nigeria
    AU  - Johnbosco Chukwuma Ozigbu
    AU  - Christopher Ifeanyi Ezekwe
    AU  - Lucky Igwebuike Okofu
    Y1  - 2026/09/20
    PY  - 2026
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18
    T2  - International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences
    JF  - International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences
    JO  - International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences
    SP  - 372
    EP  - 382
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2326-9561
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20261405.18
    AB  - Food inflation is recognized as a major macroeconomic issue in Nigeria, significantly affecting household welfare, poverty reduction, and overall economic stability. Thus, provides valuable insights into how institutional factors, such as the CBN's monetary autonomy and regulatory quality, alongside monetary and fiscal policy measures, affect food inflation in Nigeria between 1997 and 2023. This is motivated by Nigeria's persistent and complex inflation issues, despite numerous monetary and fiscal policy efforts to ensure economic growth and stability. The datasets were gathered from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin, the National Bureau of Statistics, the World Bank, and the Chinn-Ito index, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, pre-estimation tests (unit root and cointegration tests), and least-squares estimation. The results showed that CBN’s monetary autonomy and regulatory quality contributed positively to food inflation in Nigeria during the study period. The contemporaneous positive effect of regulatory quality on food inflation is significant at the 5% level, indicating that a percentage increase in regulatory quality is associated with a 16.59% increase in food inflation during the study period. This finding highlights the ineffectiveness of institutional quality in reducing food inflation in Nigeria. The results further showed that the monetary policy rate has a positive effect on food inflation. Although this finding is not significant at the 5% level, it highlights the monetary policy rate's ineffectiveness as a tool for mitigating rising food prices. The effect of broad money supply on food inflation is mixed. While contemporaneous broad money supply negatively affects food inflation, its one-period lag has a positive and significant effect. The estimated parameter revealed that food inflation increases by 1.08% following a percentage increase in the one-period lag of the broad money supply. Additionally, the results showed that total government expenditure contributed positively to food inflation. This finding is not surprising, as increased government spending raises households' purchasing power, boosting aggregate demand for food and, in turn, raising food prices. The error correction coefficient (-0.6868) is negative and significant at the 5% level, indicating that distortions from the long run are corrected at a speed of 68.68% each year. Thus, we recommend that policymakers reinforce the CBN's autonomy in practice and strengthen the bank's inflation-targeting regime by explicitly defining its inflation goals to improve the precision of inflation forecasts and stabilize food prices.
    VL  - 14
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Agricultural Economics, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt, Nigeria;Department of Economics, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

  • Department of Economics, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

  • Department of Economics, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

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