Inflation Drops to 23.18%

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services further declined to 23.18 per cent in February compared to 24.48 per cent in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

Year-on-year, the headline inflation was 8.52 per cent lower than 31.70 per cent recorded in February 2024.

According to the CPI Report for the review period, month-on-month, inflation stood at 2.04 per cent in February.

Year on year, food inflation dropped by 14.41 per cent to 23.51 per cent in February compared to 37.92 per cent in the corresponding year.

The NBS however, pointed out that the significant decline in the food inflation was technically due to the change in the base year, following the recent rebasing of CPI from 2009 to 2024.

Nonetheless, the food index month on month, stood at 1.67 per cent.

The NBS stated, “Compared to the month of January 2025, there was an observed decline in the average prices of food items like yam tuber, potatoes, soya beans, flour of maize/cornmeal, cassava, bambara beans (dried), etc.”

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produces and energy, also declined by 2.12 per cent to 23.01 per cent, year on year in February 2025, compared to the 25.13 per cent in February 2024.

On a month-on-month basis, the core index stood at 2.52 per cent in February.

The average 12-month annual inflation rate was 25.33 per cent for the 12 months ending February 2025, higher than 21.72 per cent in February 2024.