Nigeria’s inflation rate now 15%, says NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined to 15.15 percent in December 2025.

The NBS announced the rate in its latest consumer price index (CPI) report, released on Thursday.

The data bureau said the CPI, which measures the changes in prices of good and services, rose to “131.2 in December 2025, up by 0.7 points from the previous month (130.5)”.

“The December 2025 year-on-year Headline inflation rate stood at 15.15% relative to the November 2025 headline inflation rate (17.33%),” the report said.

The bureau had, on January 12, projected a temporary “artificial spike” in the country’s December 2025 inflation rate.

Adeyemi Adeniran, statistician-general of the federation, said the spike would result from the adjustment in the reference period, otherwise known as the base year.

“This artificial spike is as a result of the base effect of December 2024, which is equated to 100, following the rebasing exercise,” Adeniran said.

In the latest CPI, the NBS said the current inflation rate, on a year-on-year basis, was 19.65 percent lower than the rate recorded in December 2024 at 34.8 percent.

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

“On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in December 2025 was 0.54%, which is 0.69% less than the rate recorded in November 2025 (1.22%).

“This means that in December 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than in November 2025.”

The NBS also said the food inflation rate for December 2025 stood at 10.84 percent on a year-on-year basis.

According to the statistics agency, this was 20 percent lower compared to the rate recorded in December 2024 at 39.84 percent.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate declined to -0.36%, down by 1.49%
compared to November 2025 (1.13%),” the NBS said.

“This decline can be attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices in the following food items, namely, Tomatoes, Garri, Eggs, Potatoes, Carrots, Millet, Vegetables, Plantain, Beans, Wheat Grain, Grounded Pepper, Onions (Fresh), etc.

“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending December 2025, relative to the previous twelve-month average, stood at 22.00%.”

In the period under review, the agency said food inflation, on a year-on-year basis, was highest in Yobe (15.25 percent), Ogun (14.12 percent), and Abuja (13.24 percent).

On the other hand, Akwa Ibom (4.34 percent), Sokoto (4.62 percent), and Plateau (6.19 percent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.

“On a Month-on-Month basis, however, December 2025 Food inflation was highest in Imo (3.19%), Nasarawa (3.16%), and Yobe (1.18%), while Plateau (-2.76%), Rivers (-2.50%), and Zamfara (-1.93%) recorded a decline in Food inflation on a Month-on-Month basis,” the NBS said.

The current headline inflation rate marks a steady decline recorded for nine straight months.