UPDATED: Nigeria’s inflation rate eases in April – NBS

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate eased to 23.71 per cent in April from 24.23 per cent in March 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

The statistics office said the April 2025 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.52 per cent compared to the March 2025 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.99 per cent lower than the rate recorded in April 2024 (33.69 per cent).

This, it said, shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in April 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., April 2024), though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100.

The NBS said that, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in April 2025 was 1.86 per cent, which was 2.04 per cent lower than the rate recorded in March 2025 (3.90 per cent).

“This means that in April 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level is lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in March 2025,” it said.

According to the report, food inflation rate in April 2025 was 21.26 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This, it said, was 19.27 per cent points lower compared to the rate recorded in April 2024 (40.53 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.

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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.

In February, 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 Thursday, 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 (9.49 per cent), restaurants and accommodation services (3.06 per cent), transport (2.53 per cent), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel (2.00 per cent), education services (1.47 per cent), health (1.44 per cent), clothing & footwear (1.20 per cent).

Others are information and communication (0.78 per cent), personal care, social protection, and miscellaneous goods and services (0.78 per cent), furnishing, household equipment, and routine household maintenance (0.70 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 NBS said the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 119.52 in April 2025, reflecting a 2.18-point increase from the preceding month.

The statistics office said the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending April 2025 over the average for the previous twelve-month period was 28.5 per cent, showing a 0.4 per cent increase compared to 28.1 per cent recorded in April 2024.

The NBS said in April, the urban inflation rate was 24.29 per cent, 11.71 per cent points lower compared to the 36.00 per cent recorded in April 2024. On a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate was 1.18 per cent in April 2025, down by 2.78 per cent compared to March 2025 (3.96 per cent).

READ ALSO: UPDATED: Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 24.2% in March – NBS

It explained that the rural inflation rate in April 2025 was 22.83 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This was 8.81 per cent points lower compared to the 31.64 per cent recorded in April 2024. On a month-on-month basis, the Rural inflation rate in April 2025 was 3.56 per cent, down by 0.17 per cent compared to March 2025 (3.73 per cent).

Food inflation

The NBS said the significant decline in the food annual 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 April 2025 was 2.06 per cent, down by 0.12 per cent compared to March 2025 (2.18 per cent).

“The decrease can be attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices of maize (corn) flour, wheat grain, okra dried, yam flour, soya beans, rice, bambara beans, brown beans, etc,” the NBS said.

It added that the average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending April 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 31.43 per cent, which was 1.31 per cent points lower compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in April 2024 (32.74 per cent).