Breaking: Nigeria’s Inflation plummets to 15.39% in August

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate fell marginally to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, from 15.43 per cent in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for August 2026 released on Tuesday.

It stated that the CPI, which measures the average change in prices of goods and services, increased to 146.3 points in August from 145.3 points in July, representing a 1.0-point increase.

According to the bureau, the August headline inflation rate declined by 0.04 percentage points from the 15.43 per cent recorded in July.

It added that the figure was also significantly lower than the 23.14 per cent recorded in August 2025.

On a month-on-month basis, the NBS said headline inflation stood at 0.71 per cent in August, compared with 1.57 per cent in July.

“This means that in August 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2026,” it stated.

The bureau further reported that the average CPI for the 12 months ending August 2026 increased by 16.30 per cent over the average of the preceding 12-month period.

It said the figure represented a 12.02 percentage-point decline from the 28.32 per cent recorded in August 2025.

The NBS stated that urban inflation stood at 15.88 per cent year-on-year in August 2026, while the month-on-month rate fell to 0.28 per cent from 1.90 per cent in July.

It said the 12-month average urban inflation rate stood at 16.28 per cent, compared with 29.73 per cent recorded in August 2025.

For rural areas, the bureau reported an inflation rate of 14.23 per cent year-on-year in August.

However, rural month-on-month inflation increased to 1.79 per cent, up from 0.78 per cent in July.

The corresponding 12-month average rural inflation rate stood at 16.02 per cent in August, down from 26.47 per cent a year earlier.

The NBS also reported a significant slowdown in food inflation, which stood at 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August, compared with 25.30 per cent in August 2025.

On a month-on-month basis, food inflation fell sharply to 1.02 per cent in August from 5.56 per cent in July.

The bureau said the decline reflected changes in the average prices of several food items, 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.

It stated that the development meant the average prices of food items continued to rise in August, but at a slower rate than in July.