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Nigeria’s annual inflation rate eased to 23.18 per cent in February from 24.48 per cent in January 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.
The statistics office said the February 2025 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.30 per cent compared to the January 2025 headline inflation rate.
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On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 8.52 per cent lower than the rate recorded in February 2024 (31.70 per cent).
This, it said, shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in February 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2024), though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100.
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The NBS said that, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in February 2025 stood at 2.04 per cent.
Nigeria has experienced a sharp increase in food prices in recent years. This trend worsened in 2023 following President Bola Tinubu’s removal of petrol subsidies and adopting a floating exchange rate for the naira.
This shift has led to a steep increase in the cost of staple food, pushing many Nigerians further into poverty and heightening food insecurity.
The persistent price surge over the past year has led to several farms and businesses closing, with many agricultural producers scaling back their output due to insecurity and unpredictable weather conditions affecting rural areas.
In response, Mr Tinubu declared a state of emergency on food insecurity in July 2023, aiming to combat rising food costs. Despite these efforts, at the time, food inflation has continued unabated.
In July last year, Mr Tinubu unveiled some proactive measures to address skyrocketing food prices in the country. Amongst these is the decision to suspend duties, tariffs, and taxes on importing essential food items such as beans, wheat, and husked brown rice.
Last month, the NBS said Nigeria’s annual inflation rate dropped to 24.48 per cent in January from 34.80 per cent in December 2024 after rebasing.
Breakdown
In its inflation report Monday, the NBS said the contributions of items on the divisional year-on-year level to the increase in the headline index are food & non-alcoholic beverages (9.28 per cent), restaurants and accommodation services (2.99 per cent), transport (2.47 per cent), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel (1.95 per cent), education services (1.44 per cent), health (1.40 per cent), clothing & footwear (1.17 per cent).
Others are information and communication (0.76 per cent), personal care, social protection, and miscellaneous goods and services (0.76 per cent), furnishing, household equipment, and routine household maintenance (0.69 per cent), insurance and financial services (0.11 per cent), alcoholic beverage, tobacco and narcotics (0.09 per cent) and recreation, sport and culture (0.07 per cent).
The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending February 2025 over the average for the previous twelve-month period was 30.09 per cent, showing a 3.91 per cent point increase compared to 26.18 per cent recorded in February 2024.
Food inflation
The NBS said the food inflation rate in February 2025 was 23.51 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This was 14.41 per cent lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2024 (37.92 per cent).
It said the significant decline in the food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year.
However, it said, on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in February 2025 was 1.67 per cent.
“Compared to the month of January 2025, there was an observed decline in the average prices of food items like Yam tuber, Potatoes, Soya beans, Flour of maize/cornmeal, Cassava, Bambara beans (Dried), etc.
“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending February 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 34.74 per cent, which was 4.67 per cent points higher compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in February 2024 (30.07 per cent),” the NBS said.
