Inflation eases to 16.05% in Oct as food prices drop 13.12%

From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja

The headline inflation in October 2025 eased to 16.05 per cent relative to the September 2025 headline inflation rate of 18.02 per cent. This is even as the food inflation rate in October 2025 equally declined to 13.12 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Looking at the movement, the October 2025 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.97 per cent compared to the September 2025 headline inflation rate.

But on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 17.83 per cent lower than the rate recorded in October 2024 (33.88 per cent).

A document from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in October 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., October 2024), though with a different base year (November 2009 = 100).

On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in October 2025 was 0.93 per cent, which was 0.21 per cent higher than the rate recorded in September 2025 (0.72 per cent).

“This means that in October 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in September 2025.”

Meanwhile, the food inflation rate in October 2025 was 13.12 per cent on a year-on-year basis, 26.04 percentage points lower compared to the rate recorded in October 2024 (39.16 per cent). The significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year.

However, on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in October 2025 was -0.37 per cent, up by 1.20 per cent compared to September 2025 (-1.57 per cent).

The increase, according to the NBS, can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of onions (fresh), fruits (oranges, pineapple), shrimp, groundnuts (unshelled), vegetables (ugu, okazi leaf), and meat (goat meat, cow tail, liver), among others.

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending October 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 21.96 per cent, which was 16.16 percentage points lower compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2024 (38.12 per cent),” the NBS said.