Nigeria’s inflation rate drops to 18.02% in September

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 August.

According to the NBS’s monthly inflation report, the month-on-month (m/m) headline inflation rate for September was 0.72%, while Food Inflation recorded a -1.57% decrease. This marks a significant drop of 3.22% compared to August 2025, when food prices had increased by 1.65%.

The report indicates that the slowing inflationary trend, particularly in food prices, may provide some relief to households grappling with rising living costs.

It attributed the decrease to the drop in the average prices of Maize (Corn) Grains, Garri, Beans, Millet, Potatoes, Onions, Eggs, Tomatoes, Fresh Pepper etc.

It 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.”

It went on to state that Headline inflation rate eased to18.02% relative to the August 2025 headline inflation rate of 20.12%.

“Looking at the movement, the September 2025 Headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 2.1% compared to the August 2025 Headline inflation rate. 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%).”

“This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in September 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., September 2024), though with a Different base year, 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 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.”