Inflation falls to 23.18%

Nigeria’s Headline Inflation dropped to 23.18% in February 2025, according to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The report said the inflation figure fell from the 24.48% recorded in January following the rebasing of Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The update of the CPI made 2024 the base year for price increment instead of 2009 practised before.

“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%).”

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This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in February 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2024), though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100.

It added that Food inflation rate in February 2025 was 23.51% on a year-on-year basis, which is 14.41% lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2024 (37.92%).

It said 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, 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%).”