Nigeria’s inflationary pressure showed further signs of easing in December 2025, as headline inflation moderated to 15.15 per cent, driven largely by a slowdown in food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported.
The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the NBS, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, disclosed this in Abuja while presenting the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for December 2025.
According to the report, the CPI rose to 131.2 points in December, a marginal 0.7-point increase from November, based on the newly rebased CPI with 2024 as the base year and 2023 as the reference period for weights.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation dropped sharply to 0.54 per cent in December, compared with 1.22 per cent recorded in November, indicating a slower pace of price increases.
Food inflation recorded a notable decline. Year-on-year food inflation stood at 10.84 per cent, while month-on-month food inflation fell by 0.36 per cent, reversing the 1.13 per cent increase recorded in November. The NBS attributed the improvement to lower average prices of key food items, including tomatoes, garri, eggs, potatoes, carrots, millet, vegetables, plantain, beans, wheat grain, pepper and fresh onions.
Core inflation, which excludes farm produce and energy, stood at 18.63 per cent year-on-year. On a month-on-month basis, it eased to 0.58 per cent from 1.28 per cent in the previous month.
Among the newly introduced indices, energy inflation rose by 2.74 per cent, while farm produce declined by 0.41 per cent. Services and goods inflation recorded moderate increases of 0.15 per cent and 0.64 per cent respectively.
Urban inflation stood at 14.85 per cent year-on-year, with month-on-month inflation rising slightly to 0.99 per cent. Rural inflation was recorded at 14.56 per cent year-on-year, while month-on-month inflation fell sharply by 0.55 per cent, compared to a 1.88 per cent increase in November.
At the state level, Abia (19.03%), Ogun (18.80%) and Katsina (18.66%) recorded the highest headline inflation rates year-on-year, while Sokoto (8.61%), Plateau (9.05%) and Kaduna (10.38%) posted the lowest.
On a month-on-month basis, Cross River (3.11%), Abia (2.63%) and Delta (2.53%) recorded the sharpest increases, while Ondo (-3.74%), Gombe (-3.02%) and Jigawa (-1.96%) experienced declines.
For food inflation, Yobe (15.25%), Ogun (14.12%) and Abuja (13.24%) recorded the highest year-on-year increases, while Akwa Ibom (4.34%), Sokoto (4.62%) and Plateau (6.19%) recorded the slowest rises.
The NBS advised that state-level inflation figures should be interpreted with caution, noting that CPI weights differ across states due to variations in consumption patterns.
