Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the country’s headline inflation rate dropped to 15.39 per cent in August.
According to the NBS, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report for August released in Abuja on Tuesday, the August headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.04 per cent compared to the July headline inflation rate of 15.43 per cent.
The report said that on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August was 0.71 per cent, which was 0.86 per cent lower than the rate recorded in July at 1.57 per cent.
“This means that in August, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July,” the NBS said.
It added that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate in August stood at 15.39 per cent, compared to the 23.14 per cent recorded in August 2025.
The report explained that the three major contributors to the headline inflation year- on- year were food and non-alcoholic beverages at 6.16 per cent, restaurants and accommodation services at 1.99 per cent, and transport at 1.64 per cent.
According to the report, the least contributors were recreation, sports, and culture at 0.05 per cent, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and narcotics at 0.06 per cent, and insurance and financial services at 0.07 per cent.
It noted that the CPI increased to 146.3 in August, and reflected a 1.0 -point increase from the 145.3 recorded in July.
The report said the food inflation rate in August was 19.57 per cent on a year-on-year basis, compared to the rate recorded in August 2025 at 25.30 per cent.
It said that on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in August was 1.02 per cent, which decreased by 4.55 per cent compared to the 5.56 per cent recorded in July.
The NBS attributed the drop in food inflation to the rate of change in the average prices of palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, tam flour and water yam.
“Others are melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken, turkey, meat, yam flour, among others.”
“All items less farm produce and energy or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 13.29 per cent in August on a year-on-year basis.
“This shows a decline of 9.64 per cent when compared to the 22.93 per cent recorded in August 2025.
“On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was -0.06 per cent in August which decreased by 0.21 per cent compared to the 0.15 per cent recorded in July.”
The report said that the inflation rate of the sub-indices for August on a month-on-month basis showed that energy stood at -0.36 per cent compared to -2.39 per cent in July.
The report added that farm produce stood at 1.35 per cent compared to 4.66 per cent in July, while services stood at 0.12 per cent compared to the 0.49 per cent recorded in July.
Goods stood at 0.45 per cent compared to the 1.70 per cent recorded in July, while imported food stood at 0.91 per cent compared to the 1.19 per cent recorded in July.
On a year-on-year basis in August, the urban inflation rate was 15.88 per cent, while urban inflation rate was 0.28 per cent, which decreased by 1.62 per cent compared to 1.90 per cent in July.
GIK/APA