Nigeria’s headline inflation drops from 24.48 percent to 23.18 percent: NBS

*Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics explains how the country’s headline inflation rate recorded a 1.30 percent decrease February 2025, compared to the January headline inflation rate

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate dropped to 23.18 percent relative to the January 2025 headline inflation rate of 24.48 percent.

ConsumerConnect reports the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its February 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released Monday, March 17, 2025.

The NBS explained the headline inflation rate indicated a decrease of 1.30 percent compared to the January 2025 headline inflation rate.

It also stated: “In February 2025, the Headline inflation rate eased to 23.18% relative to the January 2025 headline inflation rate of 24.48%.

“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%).”

According to the Bureau, this development showed that the year-on-year basis headline inflation rate decreased February 2025,  compared to the same month in the preceding year.

On a month-on-month basis, the NBS said the headline inflation rate in February 2025 remained at 2.04 percent.

On food inflation

For Food inflation during the month under consideration, the market regulatory agency said the rate February 2025 was 23.51 percent on a year-on-year basis.

It stated this was 14.41 percent lower, in comparison to the rate recorded February 2024 (37.92%).

The significant decline in the food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year, the Bureau noted.

However, on a month-on-month basis, NBS said the food inflation rate February 2025 was 1.67 percent.

The agency further said: “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%).”