Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined marginally to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, driven largely by a sharp slowdown in food price growth during the month.
The latest figure was contained in the Consumer Price Index report for August 2026 released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
According to the report, the August inflation rate was 0.04 percentage points lower than the 15.43 per cent recorded in July 2026 and significantly below the 23.14 per cent recorded in August 2025.
The NBS stated, “In August 2026, the headline inflation rate stood at 15.39 per cent, down from 15.43 per cent in July 2026 and stood at 23.14 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (August 2025).”
Despite the decline in the annual inflation rate, the overall price level continued to rise during the month.
The Consumer Price Index, which tracks changes in the prices of goods and services consumed by households, increased to 146.3 points in August from 145.3 points in July.
On a month-on-month basis, however, the pace of price increases slowed substantially, with monthly inflation falling to 0.71 per cent in August from 1.57 per cent in July.
The statistics agency explained that the development indicated a slower rate of increase in the average prices of goods and services compared with the previous month.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the biggest contributor to annual inflation, accounting for 6.16 percentage points of the overall rate.
Restaurants and accommodation services followed with 1.99 percentage points, while transport contributed 1.64 percentage points. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels accounted for another 1.30 percentage points.
Food inflation stood at 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August, down significantly from 25.30 per cent recorded in August 2025.
The moderation was more pronounced on a monthly basis, as food inflation dropped to 1.02 per cent in August from 5.56 per cent in July.
The NBS noted that the development showed that “the average prices of food items are increasing at a decreasing rate in August 2026.”
The agency attributed the moderation to movements in the prices of several food commodities, including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat.
Core inflation, which excludes certain volatile agricultural produce and energy prices, also moderated.
Core inflation fell to 13.29 per cent year-on-year in August from 22.93 per cent recorded in the corresponding month of 2025. On a month-on-month basis, it moved into negative territory at -0.06 per cent, compared with 0.15 per cent in July.
The moderation in inflation was not uniform across the country, with significant variations between urban and rural areas and among individual states.
Urban inflation stood at 15.88 per cent year-on-year, higher than the 14.23 per cent recorded in rural areas.
However, rural areas experienced a faster monthly increase in prices during August, with rural month-on-month inflation rising to 1.79 per cent from 0.78 per cent in July.
In contrast, urban monthly inflation fell sharply to 0.28 per cent in August from 1.90 per cent in July.
State-level figures also showed wide disparities in inflation outcomes.
Lagos recorded the highest headline inflation rate at 23.68 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 22.56 per cent and Enugu at 22.06 per cent.
Sokoto recorded the lowest headline inflation rate among the states at 2.11 per cent.
Food inflation was highest in Adamawa at 38.85 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 per cent and Bayelsa at 36.20 per cent.
The NBS, however, cautioned against interpreting the state-level figures as straightforward measures of relative price levels, noting that differences in consumption patterns and the weights assigned to items in the Consumer Price Index could affect comparisons among states.
Overall, the August figures point to a broad moderation in the pace of inflation, particularly in food prices and monthly price movements, although the cost of goods and services continued to increase during the period.
