Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased for the second consecutive month to 21.88 per cent in July 2025, down by 0.34 percentage points from 22.22 per cent recorded in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The decline, based on a rebased Consumer Price Index (CPI) with 2024 as the base year, reflects a 2.5-point rise in the CPI to 125.9 points.
The statistics agency linked the slight food inflation slowdown to lower prices of vegetable oil, beans, local rice, maize flour, sorghum, wheat flour, and millet.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile farm produce and energy, eased to 0.97% month-on-month from 2.46% in June.
Releasing the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Friday, the NBS identified food and non-alcoholic beverages (8.75%), restaurants and accommodation services (2.83%), and transport (2.33%) as the main contributors to the overall inflation figure.
The least contributing sectors were recreation, sport and culture (0.07%), alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics (0.08%), and insurance and financial services (0.10%).
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation rose to 1.99% in July, 0.31 percentage points higher than the 1.68% recorded in June.
Food inflation stood at 22.74% year-on-year, while the month-on-month rate slowed to 3.12% from 3.25% in June. The NBS attributed the decline to price drops in vegetable oil, beans, local rice, maize flour, sorghum, wheat flour, and millet.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural products and energy, was 21.33% year-on-year, with a month-on-month drop to 0.97% from 2.46% in June.
Under newly introduced sub-indices, farm produce recorded a 3.96% rise, energy 2.71%, and goods 2.72%, while services declined by 0.47%.
Urban inflation stood at 22.01% year-on-year and 1.86% month-on-month, down from 2.11% in June. Rural inflation was 21.08% year-on-year and 2.30% month-on-month, sharply up from 0.63% the previous month.
State-level data showed Borno (34.52%), Niger (27.18%), and Benue (25.73%) had the highest headline inflation rates year-on-year, while Yobe (11.43%), Zamfara (12.75%), and Katsina (15.64%) recorded the lowest. On a monthly basis, Borno (6.11%), Zamfara (5.72%), and Kano (4.31%) posted the highest increases, while Bauchi (0.26%), Katsina (0.30%), and Anambra (0.37%) recorded the slowest.
Food inflation was highest in Borno (55.56%), Osun (29.10%), and Ebonyi (29.06%), while Katsina (6.61%), Adamawa (9.90%), and Zamfara (14.72%) recorded the lowest. Month-on-month, Borno (10.89%), Kano (10.86%), and Sokoto (7.43%) topped the list, while Zamfara (-6.00%), Bauchi (-2.18%), and Abia (-1.06%) recorded declines.
