The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, yesterday, said Borno, Bayelsa and Taraba States recorded the highest year-on-year (YoY) rise in the rate of increase in prices of food commodities in May 2025.

NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) Report for May noting that among the three states Borno State was at the top YoY with 64.36 percent increase.

This reflects the continuous heat of insecurity affecting the state that has led to displacement of farmers, general economic hardship, and humanitarian crises.

However, the NBS noted that states with the slowest YoY rise in food inflation were Kastina, Rivers and Kwara States.

The NBS report stated: “In May 2025, food inflation on a YoY basis was highest in Borno (64.36 percent), Bayelsa (39.85 percent), Taraba (38.58 percent), while Katsina (6.90 percent), Rivers (9.18 percent), and Kwara (11.31 percent) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation on YoY basis.”

However, the NBS report showed that the food index declined by 0.12 percentage points to 21.14 percent in May from 21.26 percent in April.

The Bureau said: “The Food inflation rate in May 2025 was 21.14 percent on a year-on-year basis.

“This was 19.52 percentage points lower compared to the rate recorded in May 2024 (40.66 percent).

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

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in May 2025 was 2.19 percent, up by 0.12 percent compared to April 2025 (2.06 percent).

“The increase can be attributed to the rate of decrease in the average prices of yam, avenger (ogbono/apon), cassava tuber, maize flour, fresh pepper, sweet potatoes, etc.”

Similarly, headline inflation rate eased by 0.52 percentage points to 22.97 percent in May 2025 from 23.71percent in April, representing the second consecutive month decline.

The report stated: “In May 2025, the Headline inflation rate eased to 22.97 percent relative to the April 2025 headline inflation rate of 23.71 percent.

“Looking at the movement, the May 2025 Headline inflation rate decreased 0.74 percentage point compared to the April 2025 Headline inflation rate.

“On a YoY basis, the Headline inflation rate was 10.98 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in May 2024 (33.95 percent).

“This shows that the Headline inflation rate (YoY basis) decreased in May 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., May 2024), though with a different base year. (Vanguard)