Nigeria’s headline inflation eased to 16.05 per cent in October relative to 18.02 per cent in September 2025, according to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The statistics office disclosed this in its monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Monday, November 17.
This is the seventh consecutive time headline inflation has moderated following the rebasing of the CPI early this year.
According to the NBS report, the October 2025 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.96 per cent compared to the September 2025 rate.
It shows that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 17.82 per cent lower than the 33.88 per cent rate recorded in October 2024.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in October 2025 was 0.93 per cent, which was 0.21 per cent higher than the 0.72 per cent rate recorded in September 2025.
“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 NBS stated.
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Also, the food inflation rate eased to 13.12 per cent in October compared to 16.9 per cent in September.
On a year-on-year basis, food inflation was 26.04 percentage points lower compared to the 39.16 per cent rate recorded in October 2024.
“The significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year. However, on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in October 2025 was -0.37%, up by 1.21% compared to September 2025 (-1.57%).
“The increase can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of onions (fresh), fruits (oranges, pineapple), shrimp, groundnuts (unshelled), vegetables (ugu, okazi leaf), and meat (goat meat, cow tail, liver), among others,” NBS stated.
Pinnacle Daily earlier reported that an increase in energy prices—particularly premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, in October, on account of a shortage in supply—exerted upward pressure on consumer prices, especially energy-sensitive goods and services.
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However, the average prices of most food items declined in October 2025 compared with September, except for garri, which recorded a notable increase.
Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural products and energy, also declined to 18.69 per cent in October 2025 from 19.53 per cent in September.
On a year-on-year basis, core inflation showed a decline of 9.68 per cent when compared to the 28.37% recorded in October 2024.
On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 1.416 per cent in October 2025, down by 0.001 per cent compared to 1.417 per cent in September 2025.
“The average twelve-month annual inflation rate was 21.61% for the twelve months ending October 2025, which was 4.51% points lower than the 26.12% recorded in October 2024,” NBS added.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
