Nigeria’s inflation falls to 15.39% as food inflation slows – NBS

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined slightly to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, down from 15.43 per cent recorded in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index, CPI, report for August 2026 released on Tuesday.

The bureau said the CPI, which tracks changes in the prices of goods and services, rose to 146.3 points in August from 145.3 points in July, representing an increase of 1.0 point.

According to the report, the headline inflation rate dropped by 0.04 percentage points compared to the 15.43 per cent recorded in July. The figure was also considerably lower than the 23.14 per cent posted in August 2025.

On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation slowed to 0.71 per cent in August from 1.57 per cent in July.

“This means that in August 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2026,” the bureau stated.

The NBS further reported that the average CPI for the 12 months ending August 2026 rose by 16.30 per cent compared with the average recorded in the preceding 12-month period.

It noted that this represented a decline of 12.02 percentage from the 28.32 per cent recorded in August 2025.

The report showed that urban inflation stood at 15.88 per cent year-on-year in August, while month-on-month urban inflation fell sharply to 0.28 per cent from 1.90 per cent in July.

The 12-month average urban inflation rate was put at 16.28 per cent, compared with 29.73 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.

For rural areas, the bureau reported a year-on-year inflation rate of 14.23 per cent in August.

However, rural month-on-month inflation rose to 1.79 per cent from 0.78 per cent recorded in July.

The 12-month average rural inflation rate stood at 16.02 per cent in August, lower than the 26.47 per cent recorded a year earlier.

The NBS also reported a moderation in food inflation, which declined to 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August, compared with 25.30 per cent in August 2025.

Month-on-month food inflation also dropped significantly to 1.02 per cent in August from 5.56 per cent recorded in July.

According to the bureau, the easing in food inflation reflected changes in the prices of commodities such as palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat.

The report indicated that while food prices continued to rise in August, the pace of increase was slower than what was recorded in July.

Nigeria’s inflation falls to 15.39% as food inflation slows – NBS