Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined marginally to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, from 15.43 per cent in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Gatekeepers News reports that the bureau disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for August 2026, released on Tuesday. The latest figure represents a 0.04 percentage-point decline from the previous month and a significant drop from the 23.14 per cent recorded in August 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation fell to 0.71 per cent in August, compared with 1.57 per cent in July, indicating that prices continued to increase but at a slower rate.
The NBS said the Consumer Price Index, which measures changes in the prices of goods and services consumed by households, rose to 146.3 points in August from 145.3 points in July.
Food inflation also recorded a notable slowdown, falling to 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August from 25.30 per cent in the same month of 2025. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation dropped sharply to 1.02 per cent from 5.56 per cent in July.
The NBS attributed the moderation to changes in the average prices of several food items, including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey.
The bureau said food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the largest contributor to annual inflation, accounting for 6.16 percentage points. Restaurants and accommodation services contributed 1.99 percentage points, while transport contributed 1.64 points and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels contributed 1.30 points.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural produce and energy prices, stood at 13.29 per cent year-on-year in August, down from 22.93 per cent in August 2025. On a monthly basis, core inflation fell to -0.06 per cent, compared with 0.15 per cent in July.
Inflation also varied across the country. Lagos recorded the highest headline inflation rate at 23.68 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 22.56 per cent and Enugu at 22.06 per cent. Sokoto recorded the lowest at 2.11 per cent.
The NBS reported that urban inflation stood at 15.88 per cent year-on-year, while rural inflation was 14.23 per cent. However, rural month-on-month inflation rose to 1.79 per cent from 0.78 per cent in July, while urban month-on-month inflation declined to 0.28 per cent from 1.90 per cent.
