The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported a decline in Nigeria’s headline inflation, which fell to 18.02% in September 2025 from 20.12% in the previous month.
According to the monthly inflation report, the month-on-month headline inflation rate was 0.72%, while food inflation recorded a negative growth of -1.57%, indicating a slight decrease in food prices compared to August 2025.
The report highlighted that the food inflation rate dropped by 3.22%, falling from 1.65% in August 2025 to -1.57% in September, contributing significantly to the overall reduction in headline inflation.
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It attributed the decrease to the drop in the average prices of maize (corn) grains, garri, beans, millet, potatoes, onions, eggs, tomatoes, and fresh pepper, among others.
The report added that the average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending September 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 24.06%, which was 13.47% points lower compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in September 2024 (37.53%).
“The food inflation rate in September 2025 was 16.87% on a year-on-year basis. This was 20.9% points lower compared to the rate recorded in September 2024 (37.77%). The significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year,” the report stated.
It went on to note that the headline inflation rate eased to 18.02% relative to the August 2025 rate of 20.12%.
“Looking at the movement, the September 2025 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 2.1% compared to August 2025. In addition, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 14.68% lower than the rate recorded in September 2024 (32.70%).”
The NBS further explained that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in September 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year, though with a different base year of November 2009 = 100.
However, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in September 2025 was 0.72%, which was 0.02% lower than the rate recorded in August 2025 (0.74%). This indicates that in September 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than that of August 2025.