National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 24.23% in March 2025.
Gatekeepers News reports that NBS made that announcement in its consumer price index (CPI) for March on Tuesday.
The new rate which indicates an upward movement from the 23.18% reported in February, signals a return to levels of 24.48 percent% recorded at the beginning of year following the CPI rebasing.
NBS said, “In March 2025, the Headline inflation rate rose to 24.23% relative to the February 2025 headline inflation rate of 23.18%.”
“Looking at the movement, the March 2025 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05% compared to the February 2025 Headline inflation rate.”
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in March 2025 was 3.90%, which was 1.85% higher than the rate recorded in February 2025 (2.04%).
“This means that in March 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in February 2025.”
The agency noted that the headline inflation rate was driven by cost of food, transport, and accommodation services.
NBS said food inflation rate in March 2025 was 21.79% on a year-on-year basis.
It said, “However, on a month-on-month basis, the bureau said food inflation rate was 2.18 percent in the period reviewed, “up by 0.50% compared to February 2025 (1.67%).”
“The increase can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of Ginger (fresh), Garri (Yellow), Broken Rice (Ofada), Honey (Natural Production), Crabs, Potatoes, Plantain Flour, Peri-winkle (Unshelled), pepper (fresh), etc.”
According to the report; food inflation, on a year-on-year basis, was highest in Oyo (34.41%), Kaduna (31.14%), and Kebbi (30.85%).
Other states like Bayelsa (9.61%), Adamawa (12.41%), and Akwa Ibom (12.60%) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.
NBS added that on a month-on-month basis, food inflation was highest in Oyo (19.74%), Kaduna (17.24%), and Kebbi (14.03%), while there was a decline in states like Sokoto (-14.10%), Nasarawa (-9.91%) and Edo (-5.78%).
