Nigeria Inflation Rate Drops to Over 3-1/2-Year Low

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate moderated to 15.15% in December 2025, the softest since November 2020, from the revised 17.33% in the prior month, after the statistics office revised its calculation method. The CPI now uses a 12-month 2024 average as the reference (100), instead of December 2024 alone, preventing an artificial spike in year-on-year inflation. Under the previous methodology, the agency had projected inflation would have surged to 31.2% in December. This is coming after it changed the base year from 2009 to 2024 earlier in 2025. Food, the largest category in the inflation basket, eased for the fifth month to 10.84% in December from the revised 14.21% in November. The core inflation rate, which strips out the volatile prices of agricultural produce and energy, slowed for the sixth month to 18.63% in December 2025, down from the revised 20.59% in November. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose by 0.54%, following a 1.22% increase in the prior month.

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate reached 14.45% in November 2025, the mildest since October 2020, marking the eighth straight month of slowing price growth. Food inflation, the largest component of the inflation basket, continued to decline, hitting 11.08%, down from October's 13.12%, helped by the ongoing strong harvest. Prices also slowed down for other CPI items, including alcoholic beverages & tobacco (14.9% vs 16.1%); clothing & footwear (13.3% vs 15.4%); housing & utilities (17.5% vs 19.1%) and furnishings & household equipment (21.3% vs 23.1%), but accelerated for health (29.7% vs 28.6%) and transportation (16.8% vs 16.5%). The core inflation rate, which strips out the volatile prices of agricultural produce and energy, slowed for the fifth month to 18% in November, the lowest since February 2023, down from October's 18.7%. On a monthly basis, the CPI rose by 1.22% in November, the most in four months, after a 0.93% increase previously.

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate fell further to 16.05% in October 2025, the softest since March 2022, from 18.02% in the prior month. This marked the seventh consecutive month of slowing price growth. Food inflation, the largest component of the inflation basket, recorded another sharp decline to 13.12%, from 16.87% in September, helped by the ongoing harvest and a stronger currency. The core inflation rate, which strips out the volatile prices of agricultural produce and energy, slowed for the fourth month to 18.7% in October, the lowest since February 2023, from 19.5% in September. On a monthly basis, the CPI rose by 0.9% In October, after increasing by 0.7% in the prior month.