Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined slightly to 15.39 percent in August 2026, compared with 15.43 percent recorded in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The latest figure was contained in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the statistics agency on Wednesday.
“Headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.04% compared to the July 2026 Headline inflation rate,” the bureau said.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation stood at 0.71 percent in August, representing a 0.86 percentage-point decline from the 1.57 percent recorded 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.”
FOOD INFLATION RATE STOOD AT 19% IN AUGUST
NBS reported that food inflation stood at 19.57 percent year-on-year in August 2026, lower than the 25.30 percent recorded in August 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was 1.02 percent in August, down by 4.55 percentage points from the 5.56 percent recorded in July.
“However, on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in August 2026 was 1.02%, down by 4.55% points from July 2026 (5.56%),” the report reads.
“This shows that the average prices of food items are increasing at a decreasing rate in August 2026.”
The NBS attributed the decline mainly to changes in the average prices of several food items, 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.
On a year-on-year basis, Adamawa recorded the highest food inflation rate at 38.85 percent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 percent and Bayelsa at 36.20 percent.
The slowest year-on-year increases were recorded in Borno at -4.04 percent, Jigawa at -0.23 percent and Kebbi at 3.47 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, Katsina recorded the highest food inflation rate at 9.48 percent, followed by Rivers at 8.86 percent and Osun at 8.32 percent.
Taraba, Borno and Bauchi recorded the slowest month-on-month food inflation rates at -12.42 percent, -12.15 percent and -8.88 percent respectively.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
