By OKEOGHENE AKUBUIKE

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), says Nigeria?s headline inflation rate eased further to 21.88 per cent in July 2025.

The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report for July 2025, which was released in Abuja on Friday.

According to the report, the headline inflation showed a decrease of 0.34 per cent compared to the 22.22 per cent recorded in June 2025.

Furthermore, the report said ?on a month-on-month?, the headline inflation rate in July 2025 was 1.99 per cent, which was 0.31 per cent higher than the rate recorded in June 2025 at 1.68 per cent.

?This means that in July 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in June 2025.?

The report said the increase in the headline index for July 2025 was attributed to the increase in some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level.

It said the three major contributors to the headline inflation were Food and non-alcoholic Beverages at 8.75 per cent, Restaurants and Accommodation Services at 2.83 per cent, and Transport at 2.33 per cent.

The report showed the least contributors were Recreation, Sport, and Culture at 0.07 per cent, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco, and Narcotics at 0.08 per cent, and Insurance and Financial Services at 0.10 per cent.

The report said the food inflation rate in July 2025 was 22.74 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 16.79 percentage points lower compared to the rate recorded in July 2024 at 39.53 per cent.

?The significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year.?

It said on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July was 3.12 per cent, which decreased by 0.14 per cent compared to the 3.25 per cent recorded in June 2025.

The NBS said the decrease in food inflation was attributed to the reduction in average prices of items such as Vegetable Oil, Bean (White), Rice Local, Maize Flour, Guinea Corn (Sorghum), Wheat Flour, Millet Whole grain, etc.

The report said that ?all items less farm produce and energy?? or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 21.33 per cent in July 2025, on a year-on-year basis.

?On a month-on-month basis, the Core Inflation rate was 0.97 per cent in July, which decreased by 1.49 per cent compared to the 2.46 per cent recorded in June 2025.?

The NBS said the inflation rate of the sub-indices showed that farm produce stood at 3.96 per cent, Energy at 2.71 per cent, and Goods at 2.72 per cent, compared to June at -13.3 per cent, -11.0 per cent and 0.93 per cent, respectively.

?The inflation rate of farm produce, Energy and Goods increased significantly and their index were 128.5, 121.2 and 124.6 basis points; respectively.

However, services recorded a decline in July to 0.47 per cent, compared to 3.26 recorded in June.

The report said that on a year-on-year basis in July 2025, the urban inflation rate was 22.01 per cent.

?On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.86 per cent, which decreased by 0.25 per cent compared to June at 2.11 per cent.?

The report said that In July, the rural inflation rate was 21.08 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

?On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate was 2.30 per cent, which increased by 1.67 per cent compared to June at 0.63 per cent.?

On states? profile analysis, the report showed that in July, the all-items index inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Borno at 34.52 per cent, followed by Niger at 27.18 per cent and Benue at 25.73 per cent.

It said the slowest rise In headline inflation on a year-on-year basis was recorded in Yobe at 11.43 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 12.75 per cent, and Katsina at 15.64 per cent.

The report, however, said that in July 2025, the inflation rate on a month-on-month basis was highest in Borno at 6.11 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 5.72 per cent, and Kano at 4.31 per cent.

?Bauchi 0.26 per cent, followed by Katsina at 0.30 per cent and Anambra at 0.37 per cent recorded the slowest rise in month-on-month inflation.?

The report said on a year-on-year basis, food inflation was highest in Borno at 55.56 per cent, followed by Osun at 29.10 per cent, and Ebonyi at 29.06 per cent.

?Katsina at 6.61 per cent, followed by Adamawa at 9.90 per cent and Zamfara at 14.72 per cent recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.??

The report, however, said on a month-on-month basis, food inflation was highest in Borno at 10.89 per cent, followed by Kano at 10.86 per cent, and Sokoto at 7.43 per cent.

?Zamfara at -6.00 per cent, followed by Bauchi at -2.18 per cent and Abia -1.06 per cent, recorded the slowest rise in inflation on a month-on-month basis.?

The NBS said that based on the recent rebasing of the CPI, it rose to 125.9 in July 2025, which reflected a 2.5 point increase from June 2025.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the NBS recently rebased the CPI, bringing the base year closer to the current period, from 2009 to 2024, with 2023 as the reference period for expenditure weights. (NAN)

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