Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased marginally to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, down from 15.43 per cent recorded in July, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The latest figure represents a 0.04 percentage-point decline in the headline inflation rate, indicating a marginal moderation in the pace of increase in the prices of goods and services.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation stood at 0.71 per cent in August, significantly lower than the 1.57 per cent recorded in July.
This means that the average price level increased at a slower rate during the month under review.
The development was accompanied by a notable moderation in food inflation, which stood at 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August 2026, compared with 25.30 per cent recorded in August 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation fell to 1.02 per cent in August from 5.56 per cent in July, representing a decline of 4.55 percentage points.
The NBS attributed the moderation largely to price movements across several food staples, including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon (egusi), fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat.
Despite the national moderation, food inflation remained considerably higher in some states.
Adamawa recorded the highest year-on-year food inflation rate at 38.85 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 per cent and Bayelsa at 36.20 per cent.
The August figures come under Nigeria’s rebased Consumer Price Index framework, which uses 2024 as the price reference year and 2023 as the weight reference period. The rebased CPI covers 934 product varieties across 13 divisions.
The latest NBS report therefore points to a slower pace of price increases in August, particularly in the food category, although the year-on-year inflation rate remains a key indicator of the continuing change in consumer prices.
