Nigeria’s headline inflation rate dropped to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, down from 15.43 per cent recorded in July, according to the latest figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for August 2026, issued by the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, on Tuesday, September 15.
The latest figure also represents a significant decline from the 23.14 per cent headline inflation recorded in August 2025.
The statistics agency said the Consumer Price Index rose to 146.3 points in August 2026, representing a 1.0-point increase from the previous month. The latest CPI figures followed the recent rebasing exercise, which adopted 2024 as the new base year and 2023 as the weight reference period.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation stood at 0.71 per cent in August, compared with 1.57 per cent in July, indicating that prices continued to rise but at a slower pace.
Food inflation also moderated during the month, falling to 19.57 per cent year-on-year, compared with 25.30 per cent in August 2025.
According to the NBS, food inflation stood at 1.02 per cent month-on-month, down sharply from 5.56 per cent in July. The agency attributed the decline largely to changes in the average prices of items including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, chicken and turkey meat.
Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural produce and energy prices, stood at 13.29 per cent year-on-year in August.
The month-on-month core inflation rate was -0.06 per cent, compared with 0.15 per cent in July.
At the divisional level, Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages remained the largest contributor to headline inflation at 6.16 per cent, followed by Restaurants and Accommodation Services at 1.99 per cent and Transport at 1.64 per cent.
The NBS further reported that urban inflation stood at 15.88 per cent year-on-year, while rural inflation was 14.23 per cent during the period.
At the state level, Lagos recorded the highest year-on-year all-items inflation at 23.68 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 22.56 per cent and Enugu at 22.06 per cent.
For food inflation, Adamawa recorded the highest year-on-year rate at 38.85 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 per cent and Bayelsa at 36.20 per cent.
The NBS cautioned that differences in consumption patterns across states mean that direct comparisons of individual state consumption baskets may be misleading.
