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Nigeria’s headline inflation rate experienced a marginal slowdown, dropping to 15.39% in August, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
The latest figure represents a 0.04% decrease compared to the 15.43% recorded in July, reflecting a continuous easing in the rate of price increases across the country.
Key Highlights of the August Report
Headline Inflation (YoY): Stood at 15.39%, marking a steep decline from the 23.14% recorded in August 2025.
Month-on-Month Headline: Recorded at 0.71%, which is 0.86% lower than the 1.57% seen in July.
Food Inflation (YoY): Dropped to 19.57% compared to 25.30% in August 2025, while month-on-month food inflation slowed down to 1.02% from 5.56% in July.
Core Inflation (YoY): Excluded volatile agricultural produce and energy, settling at 13.29%—a significant drop from 22.93% in August 2025.
Major Price Drivers and Sub-Indices
The NBS report highlighted that the primary year-on-year drivers of headline inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages (6.16%), restaurants and accommodation services (1.99%), and transport (1.64%). Conversely, the least contributors were recreation, sports, and culture (0.05%), alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and narcotics (0.06%), and insurance and financial services (0.07%).
The deceleration in food inflation was driven by lower average prices for items such as palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, and yam, among others.
Regionally, urban inflation stood at 15.88% year-on-year, while rural inflation was recorded at 14.23%.
State-by-State Breakdown
Highest Year-on-Year Inflation: Lagos led with 23.68%, followed by Zamfara (22.56%) and Enugu (22.06%).
Lowest Year-on-Year Inflation: Sokoto recorded the slowest rise at 2.11%, followed by Kebbi (3.72%) and Jigawa (3.81%).
Food Inflation extremes: Adamawa recorded the highest year-on-year food inflation at 38.85%, while Borno registered a decline at -4.04%. On a month-on-month basis, Katsina spiked at 9.48%, whereas Taraba saw a sharp decline of -12.42%.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased to 146.3 in August, reflecting a 1.0-point increase from the 145.3 recorded in July, signifying that while the rate of price increases is slowing down, overall price levels remain elevated.
