Market News
Nigeria’s inflation rate eases for 5th consecutive month, down to 20.12% in August - VANGUARD
By Elizabeth Adegbesan
Nigeria’s inflation rate eased for the fifth consecutive month, dropping to 20.12 percent in August 2025 from 21.88 percent in July, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
This represents a decline of 1.76 percentage points and continues the downward trend since April 2025, when the inflation rate stood at 23.71 percent.
“In August 2025, the headline inflation rate eased to 20.12 percent relative to the July 2025 headline inflation rate of 21.88 percent,” the NBS stated. “On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 12.03 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in August 2024 (32.15 percent).”
The NBS attributed part of the year-on-year decline to a change in the CPI base year (November 2009 = 100).
Urban vs. Rural Inflation
The report showed that the decline in urban inflation, which stood at 19.75 percent in August, outpaced rural inflation at 20.28 percent.
Food Inflation
Food inflation also slowed to 21.87 percent in August from 22.70 percent in July, largely driven by lower average prices of key staples such as imported and local rice, guinea corn flour, maize flour, sorghum, millet, semolina, and soya milk.
On a year-on-year basis, food inflation declined by 15.65 percentage points compared to 37.52 percent in August 2024.
State-Level Food Inflation
The NBS report further revealed wide variations in food inflation across states:
Highest Year-on-Year Rates: Borno (36.67%), Kano (30.44%), and Akwa Ibom (29.85%).
Lowest Year-on-Year Rates: Zamfara (3.30%), Yobe (3.60%), and Sokoto (6.34%).
