Nigeria’s headline inflation rate fell marginally to 15.39 percent in August 2026, from 15.43 percent recorded in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The latest figure was contained in the NBS Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Wednesday, showing a 0.04 percentage-point decline in the headline inflation rate between July and August.
“Headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.04% compared to the July 2026 Headline inflation rate,” the bureau said.
The statistics agency also reported a sharper slowdown in inflation on a month-on-month basis, putting the rate at 0.71 percent in August, compared with 1.57 percent recorded in July.
“On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in August 2026 was 0.71%, which was 0.86% lower than the rate recorded in July 2026 (1.57%),” NBS said.
“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 Falls to 19.57%
The NBS report further showed that food inflation stood at 19.57 percent year-on-year in August 2026, significantly lower than the 25.30 percent recorded in August 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation also recorded a substantial slowdown, falling to 1.02 percent in August from 5.56 percent 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.”
According to the NBS, the decline in food inflation was driven mainly by changes in the average prices of several food commodities.
The bureau attributed the movement to changes in the prices of “Palm Oil, Carrots, Pepper, Onions, Cassava Flour, Beef, Yam Flour, Water Yam, Melon (Egusi), Fresh Ginger Fresh Fish, Irish Potatoes, Wheat Grain, Frozen Chicken, Turkey Meat, Yam Flour, among others”.
Adamawa Records Highest Food Inflation
Despite the national decline, significant differences were recorded across states.
On a year-on-year basis, Adamawa recorded the highest food inflation at 38.85 percent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 percent and Bayelsa at 36.20 percent.
The slowest year-on-year rise in food inflation was recorded in Borno at -4.04 percent, followed by Jigawa at -0.23 percent and Kebbi at 3.47 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, Katsina recorded the highest food inflation at 9.48 percent, followed by Rivers at 8.86 percent and Osun at 8.32 percent.
In contrast, Taraba recorded the lowest month-on-month rate at -12.42 percent, followed by Borno at -12.15 percent and Bauchi at -8.88 percent.
