Nigeria’s inflation rate eases second consecutive month to 22.97%

By Elizabeth Adegbesan

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased by 0.74 percentage points to 22.97 per cent in May 2025 from 23.71 per cent in April.

This represents the second consecutive month of decline since April 2025.

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed this today in its Consumer Price Index, CPI, Report for May 2025.

The food index also declined by 0.12 percentage points to 21.14 per cent in May from 21.26 per cent in April.

NBS said: “The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 121.35 in May 2025, reflecting a 1.83-point increase from the preceding month.

“In May 2025, the Headline inflation rate eased to 22.97% relative to the April 2025 headline inflation rate of 23.71%.

“Looking at the movement, the May 2025 Headline inflation rate decreased 0.74% compared to the April 2025 Headline inflation rate.

“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 10.98% lower than the rate recorded in May 2024
(33.95%).

“This 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-
ber 2009 = 100.

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in May 2025 was 1.53%, which was
0.33% lower than the rate recorded in April 2025 (1.86%).

“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.”

On food inflation, the Bureau said: “The Food inflation rate in May 2025 was 21.14% on a year-on-year basis.

“This was 19.52% points lower compared to the rate recorded in May 2024 (40.66%).

“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, the Food inflation rate in May 2025 was 2.19%, up by 0.12% compared to April 2025 (2.06%).

“ 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.

“The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending May 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 29.80%, which was 4.26% points lower compared with the average annual
rate of change recorded in May 2024 (34.06%).”

On states profile, NBS said that in May 2025, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Borno (64.36%), Bayelsa (39.85%), Taraba (38.58%), while Katsina (6.90%), Rivers (9.18%), and Kwara (11.31%) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation.

It added: “ On a month-on-month basis, however, May 2025 Food inflation was highest in Bayelsa (12.68%), Cross River (11.15%), and Anambra (9.10%) while Katsina (-5.42%), Jigawa (-4.02%) and Kaduna (-3.27%), recorded decline in Food inflation on month-on-month basis.