Nigeria’s inflation rate eases in May – NBS

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate eased to 22.97 per cent in May from 23.71 per cent in April 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.

The statistics office said the May 2025 headline inflation rate decreased 0.74 per cent compared to the April 2025 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the NBS said the headline inflation rate was 10.98 per cent lower than the rate recorded in May 2024 (33.95 per cent).

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

The NBS said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in May 2025 was 1.53 per cent, which was 0.33 per cent lower than the rate recorded in April 2025 (1.86 per cent).

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

According to the report, food inflation rate in May 2025 was 21.14 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This, it said, was 19.52 per cent points lower compared to the rate recorded in May 2024 (40.66 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 adoption of 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.

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 January, 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 Monday, 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 (9.20 per cent), restaurants and accommodation services (2.97 per cent), transport (2.45 per cent), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuel (1.93 per cent), education services (1.42 per cent), health (1.39 per cent), clothing & footwear (1.16 per cent).

Others are information and communication (0.76 per cent), personal care, social protection, and miscellaneous goods and services (0.76 per cent), furnishing, household equipment, and routine household maintenance (0.68 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 121.35 in May 2025, reflecting a 1.83-point increase from the preceding month.

It explained that the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending May 2025 over the average for the previous twelve-month period was 27.55 per cent, showing a 1.51 per cent decrease compared to 29.06 per cent recorded in May 2024.

Food inflation

The NBS said the significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year.

On a month-on-month basis, it said the food inflation rate in May 2025 was 2.19 per cent, up by 0.12 per cent compared to April 2025 (2.06 per cent).

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“The increase can be attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices of yam, avenger (ogbono/apon), cassava tuber, maize flour, fresh pepper, sweet potatoes, etc.”

It added that the average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending May 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 29.80 per cent, which was 4.26 percentage points lower compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in May 2024 (34.06 per cent).

The statistics office said in May 2025, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Borno (64.36 per cent), Bayelsa (39.85 per cent), and Taraba (38.58 per cent).

It added that Katsina (6.90 per cent), Rivers (9.18 per cent), and Kwara (11.31 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.

“On a month-on-month basis, however, May 2025 food inflation was highest in Bayelsa (12.68 per cent), Cross River (11.15 per cent), and Anambra (9.10 per cent) while Katsina (-5.42 per cent), Jigawa (-4.02 per cent) and Kaduna (-3.27 per cent), recorded decline in food inflation on month-on-month basis,” it said.