Inflation falls to 23.18% in February –NBS

From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja

The headline inflation rate in February 2025 eased to 23.18 percent, relative to the January 2025 headline inflation rate of 24.48 percent, with food inflation accounting for 23.51 percent on a year-on-year basis.

Looking at the movement, the February 2025 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.30 percent compared to the January 2025 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 8.52 percent lower than the rate recorded in February 2024 (31.70 percent). This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in February 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2024), though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100.

Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in February 2025 stood at 2.04 percent.

Meanwhile, the food inflation rate in February 2025 was 23.51 percent on a year-on-year basis. This was 14.41 percent lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2024 (37.92 percent). The significant decline in the 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 February 2025 was 1.67 percent. Compared to January 2025, there was an observed decline in the average prices of food items such as yam tubers, potatoes, soybeans, maize flour/cornmeal, cassava, and Bambara beans (dried), among others.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a macroeconomic indicator that provides a general measure of changes in the average prices of goods and services commonly purchased by consumers relative to a base period (the price reference period is 2024). The inflation rate is directly computed from the index. The inflation rate represents the relative change in CPI between periods and is reported year-on-year (annual inflation rate) and month-on-month (monthly inflation rate).

The CPI is constructed using key variables such as weights derived from estimates of household expenditures (the weight reference period is 2023), prices collected from selected retail outlets across the 36 states and the FCT (both urban and rural), and quantities of goods and services. In the current CPI, there are 74 population strata, which include the urban and rural parts of Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT. The CPI basket comprises 242 item strata, defined by the 2018 version of the Classification of Individual Consumption.