Nigeria’s inflation drops to 21.88% in July as food prices ease – NBS

By JOY ADARA, Abuja –

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate dropped to 21.88% in July 2025, marking a slight decline of 0.34% from June’s 22.22%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released in Abuja on Friday.

Despite the year-on-year improvement, the month-on-month inflation rate rose to 1.99%, up 0.31% from June’s 1.68%, indicating a faster rise in average prices compared to the previous month.

“This uptick shows prices are still climbing, though the annual trend is easing,” the NBS noted.

The report pinpointed food and non-alcoholic beverages (8.75%), restaurants and accommodation services (2.83%), and transport (2.33%) as the primary drivers of July’s inflation. Conversely, sectors like recreation, sport, and culture (0.07%), alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and narcotics (0.08%), and insurance and financial services (0.10%) had minimal impact.

Food inflation, a critical concern, fell significantly to 22.74% year-on-year, down 16.79% from July 2024’s 39.53%, largely due to a rebased CPI with 2024 as the new base year. Month-on-month, food inflation eased to 3.12% from 3.25% in June, driven by lower prices for items like vegetable oil, white beans, local rice, maize flour, guinea corn, wheat flour, and millet.

“The drop in food prices offers some relief, but challenges persist,” the NBS stated.

Core inflation, excluding volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 21.33% year-on-year, with a month-on-month rate of 0.97%, down 1.49% from June’s 2.46%.

Sub-indices showed farm produce inflation at 3.96%, energy at 2.71%, and goods at 2.72%, reflecting significant increases, while services inflation dropped to 0.47% from 3.26% in June.

Urban inflation was 22.01% year-on-year, with a month-on-month rate of 1.86%, down 0.25% from June.

Rural inflation, however, rose to 21.08% year-on-year, with a month-on-month increase of 2.30%, up 1.67% from June’s 0.63%.

State-level data revealed stark disparities. Borno recorded the highest year-on-year inflation at 34.52%, followed by Niger (27.18%) and Benue (25.73%), while Yobe (11.43%), Zamfara (12.75%), and Katsina (15.64%) saw the lowest. For food inflation, Borno topped the list at 55.56%, with Osun (29.10%) and Ebonyi (29.06%) following, while Katsina (6.61%) and Adamawa (9.90%) reported the smallest increases. Month-on-month, Borno (6.11%) and Zamfara (5.72%) led overall inflation, while Zamfara (-6.00%) and Bauchi (-2.18%) saw the slowest food inflation growth.

The NBS attributed the CPI’s rise to 125.9 in July, up 2.5 points from June, to a recent rebasing of the CPI from 2009 to 2024, with 2023 as the reference year for expenditure weights.

This adjustment provides a clearer picture of Nigeria’s economic pressures, offering cautious optimism amid persistent challenges.