Nigeria’s inflation rate drops to 23.18%

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s inflation rate declined to 23.18 percent in February, from 24.48 percent reported in January.

NBS announced the decline in its February 2025 consumer price index (CPI) on Monday.

The bureau said the headline inflation rate in February rose marginally by “1.30% points when 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%,” NBS said.

“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%).

“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.

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in February 2025 stood at 2.04%.”

FOOD INFLATION RATE STOOD AT 23.5% IN FEBRUARY 2025

NBS further said the food inflation rate in February 2025 was 23.51 percent on a year-on-year basis, down from 26.08 percent reported in January.

The bureau said the rate recorded last month is 14.41 percent lower than the 37.92 percent rate reported in February 2024.

“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%,” the report added.

“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%).”

STATE ANALYSIS

In the reviewed period, NBS said Edo topped the list for the highest food inflation on a year-on-year basis with 33.59 percent, followed by Enugu (30.72 percent), and Sokoto (30.19 percent).

However, Kaduna (15.45 percent), Akwa-Ibom (15.53 percent), and Plateau (15.74 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, NBS said food inflation was highest in Sokoto (11.98 percent), Kogi (11.38 percent), and Edo (8.87 percent).

Also, Kaduna (-8.83 percent), Ondo (-4.78 percent) and Plateau (-3.73 percent) recorded a decline.