Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, extending the country’s disinflation trend as slower food and core price growth helped moderate pressure on consumers.
The latest figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) represents a marginal 0.04 percentage-point decline from the 15.43 per cent recorded in July.
It also marks a significant 7.75 percentage-point decline from the 23.14 per cent recorded in August 2025.
The August data indicates that while prices are still rising, the pace of increase has slowed considerably compared with a year earlier.
Food Inflation Drops Sharply
Food inflation, one of the biggest sources of pressure on Nigerian households, fell to 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August, compared with 25.30 per cent in the same month of 2025.
The more notable movement came on a month-on-month basis, with food inflation slowing to 1.02 per cent in August from 5.56 per cent in July.
According to the NBS, the moderation reflected changes in the 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 sharp slowdown suggests that food prices increased at a considerably slower pace during August, although the annual rate remains substantially above the overall inflation rate.
Core Inflation Turns Negative
Core inflation, which excludes farm produce and energy prices, also recorded a significant moderation.
The measure fell to 13.29 per cent year-on-year in August, compared with 22.93 per cent a year earlier.
On a monthly basis, core inflation declined to -0.06 per cent, from 0.15 per cent in July.
The 12-month average core inflation rate also fell to 17.30 per cent in August from 26.15 per cent in August 2025.
The movement suggests that underlying price pressures outside food and energy were relatively subdued during the month.
Rural Inflation Shows Renewed Pressure
Despite the broader moderation, inflationary pressure was not uniform across the country.
Rural inflation stood at 14.23 per cent year-on-year in August.
However, its monthly rate accelerated to 1.79 per cent from 0.78 per cent in July, indicating that consumers in rural areas experienced a faster increase in prices during the month.
Urban inflation, meanwhile, moderated to 15.88 per cent year-on-year. Its monthly rate fell sharply to 0.28 per cent from 1.90 per cent in July.