Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 15.15 percent in December 2025, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The figure was disclosed in the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the statistics agency on Thursday.
The NBS said the CPI — which tracks changes in the prices of goods and services — increased to 131.2 points in December, representing a 0.7-point rise from the 130.5 recorded in November.
“The December 2025 year-on-year Headline inflation rate stood at 15.15% relative to the November 2025 headline inflation rate (17.33%),” the report stated.
Earlier, on January 12, the NBS had warned that the December figure could reflect a temporary “artificial spike.” The Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, explained that this would result from a change in the reference period, also known as the base year.
“This artificial spike is as a result of the base effect of December 2024, which is equated to 100, following the rebasing exercise,” Adeniran said.
Despite the uptick, the bureau noted that inflation on a year-on-year basis declined sharply compared to December 2024, when it stood at 34.8 percent. According to the NBS, the current rate is 19.65 percentage points lower.
“This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in December 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2024), though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100,” the agency said.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation slowed to 0.54 percent in December, down from 1.22 percent in November.
“This means that in December 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than in November 2025,” the report added.
Food inflation drops to 10.84%
The NBS also reported a significant decline in food inflation, which fell to 10.84 percent year-on-year in December 2025. This represents a 20 percentage-point drop from the 39.84 percent recorded in December 2024.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate declined to -0.36%, down by 1.49% compared to November 2025 (1.13%),” the bureau said.
The agency attributed the decline to falling prices of key food items, including tomatoes, garri, eggs, potatoes, carrots, millet, vegetables, plantain, beans, wheat grain, ground pepper, and fresh onions.
It added that the average annual food inflation rate for the 12 months ending December 2025 stood at 22.00 percent.
Regionally, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Yobe (15.25 percent), Ogun (14.12 percent), and Abuja (13.24 percent). The slowest increases were recorded in Akwa Ibom (4.34 percent), Sokoto (4.62 percent), and Plateau (6.19 percent).
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation rose most sharply in Imo (3.19 percent), Nasarawa (3.16 percent), and Yobe (1.18 percent), while Plateau (-2.76 percent), Rivers (-2.50 percent), and Zamfara (-1.93 percent) recorded declines.
The December headline inflation figure brings to an end an eight-month streak of steady decline. While higher than the 14 percent recorded in November 2025, the rate remains within the federal government’s target range.
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