Nigeria’s Inflation plummets to 18.02% in September

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate fell to 18.02 percent in September 2025, marking a significant decline from 20.12 percent recorded in August, according to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The report revealed that the September figure represents a 2.1 percent decrease from the previous month’s rate, showing a sustained slowdown in price growth across key consumer categories.

On a year-on-year basis, inflation also dropped sharply by 14.68 percentage points, compared to 32.70 percent recorded in September 2024.

This, according to NBS, indicates a notable improvement in price stability over the past 12 months.

“On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in September 2025 was 0.72 percent, which was 0.02 percent lower than the 0.74 percent recorded in August 2025,” the Bureau said.

“This means that the rate of increase in the average price level was lower in September than in August,” it added.

The twelve-month average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the period ending September 2025 stood at 23.46 percent, representing an 8.27 percent decline from the 31.73 percent recorded in September 2024.

The NBS report showed that urban inflation stood at 17.50 percent in September 2025, which is 17.63 percentage points lower than the 35.13 percent recorded a year earlier.

However, on a month-on-month basis, urban inflation rose slightly to 0.74 percent, up from 0.49 percent in August.

The twelve-month average for urban inflation was 24.35 percent in September 2025, 9.6 percentage points lower than the 33.95 percent recorded in September 2024.

In rural areas, inflation eased to 18.26 percent year-on-year, a 12.23 percentage point drop from 30.49 percent in September 2024. Month-on-month, the rural inflation rate slowed to 0.67 percent, down 0.71 percentage points from 1.38 percent in August 2025.

The twelve-month average rural inflation rate stood at 22.08 percent in September 2025, which is 7.68 percentage points lower than the 29.76 percent recorded in September 2024.

Analysts say the decline reflects improving supply chain stability, a stronger naira, and sustained fiscal and monetary tightening. However, they caution that maintaining this trend will depend on continued policy coordination and effective management of food and energy costs.