In a welcome development for the Nigerian economy, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced a further decline in the country’s inflation rate, which fell to 22.97% in May 2025.
This marks a significant drop from the 23.71% recorded in April, signaling a possible easing of pressure on consumer prices.
The update, released on Monday, also showed a slight decline in food inflation, which dropped to 21.14% in May from 21.16% in April. Food inflation remains a key component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with its movements closely watched by both policymakers and the general public.
However, on a month-on-month basis, food inflation rose slightly to 2.19%, compared to 2.06% in April. This uptick was driven by slower declines in the prices of essential staples such as yam, cassava tuber, maize, flour, and sweet potatoes.
The average annual rate of food inflation for the 12 months ending May 2025 was 29.80%—4.26 percentage points lower than the 34.06% recorded in the comparable period of the previous year.
The headline inflation rate on a month-on-month basis came in at 1.53%, a drop from the 1.86% seen in April 2025. This indicates a deceleration in the rate of price increases between April and May. The 12-month average inflation rate ending in May stood at 27.55%, reflecting a 1.51 percentage point decrease from May 2024’s 29.06%.
Urban areas recorded an inflation rate of 23.14%—a drop of 13.20 percentage points compared to 36.34% in May 2024. On a month-to-month basis, urban inflation climbed to 1.40% in May, from 1.18% in April. The 12-month average urban inflation rate fell to 29.30%, down from 31.07% a year earlier.
In rural areas, inflation was recorded at 22.70% in May 2025, down 9.12 percentage points from 31.82% in May 2024. Rural inflation on a monthly basis declined significantly to 1.83% in May, from 3.56% in April. The 12-month average rural inflation stood at 25.56%, compared to 27.27% in May 2024
