Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that the country’s headline inflation rate dropped further to 16.05 per cent in October this year.
According to the monthly report of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released on Monday in Abuja by the NBS, the headline inflation showed a decrease of 1.96 per cent compared to 18.02 per cent inflation rate recorded in September.
The report said that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 17.82 per cent lower than the rate of 33.8 per cent recorded in October 2024.
Furthermore, the report said that ‘on a month-on-month’, the headline inflation rate in October was 0.93 per cent, which was 0.21 per cent higher than the rate recorded in September at 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.”
The report attributed the increase in the headline index for October to the increase in some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level.
It said the three major contributors to the headline inflation year on year were Food and non-alcoholic Beverages at 6.42 per cent, Restaurants and Accommodation Services at 2.07 per cent, and Transport at 1.71 per cent.
It noted that the least contributors were Recreation, Sport, and Culture at 0.05 per cent, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco, and Narcotics at 0.06 per cent, and Insurance and Financial Services at 0.08 per cent.
The report said that the food inflation rate in October was 13.12 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 26.04 percentage points lower compared to the rate recorded in October 2024 at 39.16 per cent.
“The significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year.”
It said on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in October was -0.37 per cent, which increased by 1.27 per cent compared to the 1.57 per cent recorded in September.
The NBS said the increase in food inflation on a month- on-month basis was attributed to the increase in average prices of items such as Onions (fresh) Fruits (Orange, Pineapple).
The report said that “all items less farm produce and energy’’ or core inflation, which excluded the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 18.69 per cent in October 2025, on a year-on-year basis.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Core Inflation rate was 1.416 per cent in October, which decreased by 0.01 per ent compared to the 1.417 per cent recorded in September 2025.”
