Nigeria’s inflation drops to 21.88% despite rising food costs -NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported a decline in Nigeria’s headline inflation rate to 21.88 percent in July 2025, down from 22.22 percent recorded in June.

The agency disclosed this in its consumer price index (CPI) report released on Friday, noting that this marks the fourth consecutive slowdown in inflation this year.

According to the report, the July figure reflects a “decrease of 0.34% compared to the June 2025 headline inflation rate.”

“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 11.52% lower than the rate recorded in July 2024 (33.40%),” NBS said.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in July 2025 was 1.99%, which was 0.31% higher than the rate recorded in June 2025 (1.68%).

“This means that in July 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in June 2025.”

The bureau identified food and non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants and accommodation services, and transport as the biggest contributors to the CPI.

NBS said food inflation rose to 22.74 percent year-on-year in July, compared to 21.97 percent in June. However, the rate is 16.79 percent lower than July 2024, when food inflation stood at 39.53 percent.

“The significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year,” the bureau explained.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in July 2025 was 3.12%, down by 0.14% compared to June 2025 (3.25%).

“The decrease can be attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices of Vegetable Oil, Bean (White), Rice Local, Maize Flour, Guinea Corn (Sorghum), Wheat Flour, Millet Whole grain, etc.”

For the twelve months ending July 2025, the average annual food inflation rate was “26.97%, which was 9.39% points lower compared to the average annual rate of change recorded in July 2024 (36.36%),” the report added.