By Emmanuel Elebeke, ABUJA

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 23.18% in February 2025, down from 24.48% recorded in January 2025, according to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

This represents a 1.30% decrease from the previous month, indicating that price pressures are moderating and are expected to continue easing in the coming months.

On a year-on-year basis, the February 2025 inflation rate was 8.52% lower than the 31.70% recorded in February 2024, marking a significant decline.

On a month-on-month basis, the inflation rate stood at 2.04% in February 2025.

The 12-month average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February 2025 was 30.09%, which is 3.91 percentage points higher than the 26.18% recorded in February 2024.

Year-on-year: Urban inflation stood at 25.15%, marking an 8.51% decrease from 33.66% in February 2024.

Month-on-month: Urban inflation was 2.40% in February 2025.

12-month average: The urban inflation rate was 32.22%, which is 4.28 percentage points higher than 27.93% in February 2024.

Year-on-year: The rural inflation rate was 19.89%, down by 10.09% from 29.99% in February 2024.

Month-on-month: The rural inflation rate was 1.16% in February 2025.

12-month average: Rural inflation stood at 27.94%, which is 3.33 percentage points higher than 24.61% recorded in February 2024.

Year-on-year: The food inflation rate was 23.51%, a 14.41% drop from 37.92% in February 2024.

Month-on-month: Food inflation stood at 1.67% in February 2025.

The decline in food inflation was attributed to base-year adjustments, but there was also a notable reduction in the prices of key food items such as yam tubers, potatoes, soya beans, maize flour, cassava, and dried Bambara beans.