Nigeria’s Inflation Eases Marginally to 15.39% in August

The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics Tuesday, showed that the headline rate remained substantially below the 23.14 per cent recorded in August 2025, reflecting a 7.75 percentage-point decline over the 12-month period.

The CPI, however, increased to 146.3 points in August from 145.3 points in July, representing a one-point rise in the average price level during the month.

On a month-on-month basis, inflation slowed to 0.71 per cent in August from 1.57 per cent in July, representing a 0.86 percentage-point decline. This indicates that prices continued to rise during the month, but at a considerably slower pace than in the previous month.

The moderation was reflected across some of the major components of the inflation basket, with food and non-alcoholic beverages remaining the largest contributor to headline inflation at 6.16 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Restaurants and accommodation services contributed 1.99 per cent, followed by transport at 1.64 per cent, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels contributed 1.30 per cent.

Education services contributed 0.95 per cent, health 0.93 per cent, and clothing and footwear 0.78 per cent, highlighting the continued pressure on essential household expenditure despite the overall moderation in annual inflation.

Food inflation stood at 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August, down sharply from 25.30 per cent recorded in August 2025.

The food inflation rate also recorded a substantial moderation on a monthly basis, falling to 1.02 per cent in August from 5.56 per cent in July, a decline of 4.55 percentage points.

According to the NBS, the monthly slowdown in food inflation was driven mainly by changes in the average prices of commodities including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, water yam, melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat.

The twelve-month average food inflation rate ending August 2026 stood at 15.70 per cent, compared with 29.86 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The moderation was also evident in core inflation, which excludes farm produce and energy prices and is used to track underlying price movements less affected by volatile items.

Core inflation stood at 13.29 per cent year-on-year in August, down from 22.93 per cent in August 2025, representing a 9.64 percentage-point decline.

More significantly, core inflation turned negative on a month-on-month basis, falling to -0.06 per cent in August from 0.15 per cent in July, indicating a slight decline in the average prices of items captured by the core measure during the month.

The twelve-month average core inflation rate stood at 17.30 per cent in August, down from 26.15 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.

The monthly inflation data nevertheless showed considerable differences across states, underscoring the uneven nature of price movements across the country.

Lagos recorded the highest year-on-year all-items inflation at 23.68 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 22.56 per cent and Enugu at 22.06 per cent, while Sokoto, Kebbi and Jigawa recorded the lowest rates at 2.11 per cent, 3.72 per cent and 3.81 per cent respectively.

On a monthly basis, Rivers recorded the highest increase at 6.92 per cent, followed by Osun at 5.61 per cent and Kano at 5.59 per cent, while Anambra, Bauchi and Borno recorded declines of 8.83 per cent, 7.13 per cent and 7.09 per cent respectively.

Food price movements were similarly uneven, with Adamawa recording the highest year-on-year food inflation at 38.85 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 per cent and Bayelsa at 36.20 per cent.

At the other end, Borno recorded a negative year-on-year food inflation rate of 4.04 per cent, while Jigawa recorded -0.23 per cent and Kebbi 3.47 per cent.

The August figures therefore point to a more pronounced easing in the pace of price increases than the marginal movement in the headline annual rate alone suggests, particularly when measured against the sharp slowdown in monthly food and core inflation.

However, with food inflation still at 19.57 per cent and food and non-alcoholic beverages accounting for the largest contribution to headline inflation, household purchasing power remains under significant pressure despite the broader moderation in inflation.

The latest data also suggest that while the annual inflation rate continues to decline from the elevated levels recorded a year earlier, the cost environment facing households and businesses remains shaped by persistent increases in key consumption categories, including food, transport, housing and education.