‘Final outcome not impacted’ — NBS defends missing historical data in re-uploaded inflation report

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has defended the removal of historical data from the re-uploaded February inflation report, saying the final outcome was not impacted.

TheCable had reported that the initial inflation report was taken down and re-uploaded without the historical consumer price index (CPI) data — raising concerns about data transparency and accuracy.

Speaking on the development in a statement on Tuesday, Folorunso Alesanmi, acting director of communications and public relations at the NBS, clarified that the issue had no impact on the final inflation figures.

Reaffirming the agency’s commitment to “transparency and quality data publication”, Alesanmi said the rebased CPI figures remain unchanged from the estimates earlier published.

He explained that the exclusion of the historical CPI series was due to the recent rebasing exercise, which shifted the base year from 2009 to 2024.

The NBS official said the old and new series are “not directly comparable,” making adjustments in data presentation necessary.

“The template erroneously uploaded was not the actual result but more of a worksheet that had no impact on the final outcome,” he said.

“The rebased CPI adopts 2024 as the price reference period (base year), using a 12-month average of prices in 2024 rather than a single month.

“This re-referencing process ensures that the January 2025 index (and all other months in 2025) can be compared to their corresponding preceding years to track year-on-year inflation trends accurately.”

‘INFLATION FIGURES REMAIN UNCHANGED’

Alesanmi said the inflation figures released for December 2024 remain at 34.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) and 2.44 percent month-on-month (MoM) as published.

“The old CPI series ended in December 2024, while the new series begins from January 2025,” he said.

According to him, month-on-month inflation is calculated by comparing the computed index of the current month with that of the preceding month.

He also clarified that the reported 10.7 percent inflation rate for January 2025 was not a month-on-month figure but a computed rate reflecting changes in average prices compared to the entire year 2024.

“As a result, the MoM inflation rate for the new series officially began in February 2025 at 2.04 percent,” he said.

“The 10.7 percent inflation rate reported for January 2025 was not a MoM figure.

“Instead, it was derived from the all-items index minus 100 (110.68 – 100), representing the rate of change in the average prices of goods and services in January 2025 compared to the average prices throughout 2024.”

The acting director noted that the rebased CPI now includes about 500 new products, an updated classification system (13 divisions instead of 12), and improved compilation techniques.

“As a result, some figures in the first month (January 2025) may appear different from past trends,” he said.

“However, these adjustments are expected when transitioning to a new CPI methodology, especially after a long interval between rebasing exercises.”

Alesanmi added that moving forward, the NBS will publish both the new and old series to ensure users have access to complete information.