For the second consecutive between January and February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday announced a considerable reduction in the Nigeria’s inflation by 23.18%.
According to NBS, this is resulting from a decline in food prices and costs of logistics with the inflation rate dropping by 130 basis points from 24.48 per cent in January to 23.18 per cent in February, 2025.
The report noted that compared to the month of January, there was an observed decline in the average prices of food items like yam tuber, potatoes, soya beans, flour of maize and cornmeal, cassava and dried bambara beans among others other staple food.
The recent release follows a rebasein the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by NBS after realigning its constituents to reflect historical changes in the economy.
*Truthlive news* recalls that before the rebasing, inflation had stood at 34.80 per cent in December 2024.
Meanwhile, experts had commended the rebasing given changes in consumption patterns, as the new methodology and composition were seen as more reflective of the economic dynamics.
Similarly, the report also noted a general improvement in living cost, with month-on-month inflation rate declining from 10.68 per cent in January to 2.04 per cent in February.
Also, NBS pointed out that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 8.52 per cent lower than 31.70 per cent recorded in February 2024, though with a different base year.
NBS added that a breakdown showed that while food and non- alcoholic contributed 0.82 per cent to the headline inflation, in the month under review, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels contributed 0.22 per cent to it.
Furthermore, a percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending February over the average for the previous twelve-month period was 30.09 per cent showing 3.91 per cent points increase compared to 26.18 per cent recorded in February 2024.
In the same vein NBS revealed that on a year-on-year, in February, the Urban inflation rate was 25.15 per cent, 8.51 per cent points lower to 33.66 per cent recorded in February 2024.
It added that on a month-on-month basis, the Urban inflation rate was 2.40 per cent in February with a corresponding 12-month average for the Urban inflation rate at 32.22 per cent in February. This was 4.28 per cent points higher compared to the 27.93 per cent reported in February 2024.
NBS said in February rural was 19.89 per cent on a year-on-year basis.