Nigeria’s inflation drops to 23.18% from 24.48%

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate dropped to 23.18% relative to the January 2025 headline inflation rate of 24.48%.

This was disclosed by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its February 2025 consumer price index (CPI) on Monday.

According to NBS, the headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.30% compared to the January 2025 headline inflation rate.

“In February 2025, the Headline inflation rate eased to 23.18% relative to the January 2025 headline inflation rate of 24.48%.

“Looking at the movement, the February 2025 Headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.30% compared to the January 2025 Headline inflation rate.

“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 8.52% lower than the rate recorded in February 2024 (31.70%).”

The Bureau noted that this shows that the year-on-year basis headline inflation rate decreased in February 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year.

It added that on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in February 2025 stood at 2.04%.

For Food inflation, the NBS said the rate in February 2025 was 23.51% on a year-on-year basis.

According to the Bureau, this was 14.41% lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2024 (37.92%).

It said that the significant decline in the food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year. However, on a month-on-month basis, NBS said the food inflation rate in February 2025 was 1.67%.

“Compared to the month of January 2025, there was an observed decline in the average prices of food items like Yam tuber, Potatoes, Soya beans, Flour of maize/cornmeal, Cassava, Bambara beans (Dried), etc.

“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending February 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 34.74%, which was 4.67% points higher compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in February 2024 (30.07%).”