Inflation drops to 18.02% in half-a-year streak

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 18.02 per cent in September compared to 20.12 per cent in August 2025, indicating the sixth consecutive month of deceleration in inflation.

This was disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics in the latest Consumer Price Index published on Wednesday. This also marked the first time in three years that inflation had fallen below the 20 per cent threshold.

The rebasing of the CPI has been a driver of the decline in inflation this year, which has resulted in the first rate cut by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria in years. The sustained dip in inflation supports the projection by economists that the MPC may still cut the benchmark rate.

According to NBS, the September 2025 headline inflation rate decreased by 2.1 per cent compared to the previous month. On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 14.68 per cent lower than the rate recorded in September 2024 (32.70 per cent), marking a decrease compared to the same month in the preceding year.

“However, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in September 2025 was 0.72 per cent, which was 0.02 per cent lower than the rate recorded in August 2025 (0.74 per cent). This means that in September 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in August 2025,” disclosed part of the report.

The food inflation rate in September 2025 was 16.87 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This was 20.9 percentage points lower compared to the rate recorded in September 2024 (37.77 per cent).

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