Nigeria’s inflation falls to 18.02% in September 2025, lowest in three years— NBS

Abdullateef Fowewe

Nigeria’s inflation rate eased by 2.1 percentage points to 18.02 percent in September 2025 from 20.12 percent in August 2025, marking the 6th consecutive month of decline since April 2025.

This is the first time in three years that the nation’s inflation rate fell below 20 percent.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its latest report released on Wednesday, showing continued moderation in price growth across key sectors.

The inflation rate reduced from 20.12 percent in August and 21.88 percent in July, making it the sixth consecutive month of slowdown.

On a month-to-month basis, the inflation rate stood at 0.72 percent, indicating a slight easing in price increases compared to the previous month.

The food inflation rate also showed a notable improvement, recording a -1.57% MoM change — indicating that average food prices declined in September compared to the previous month.

Nigeria’s inflation had stayed below 20 percent throughout 2021, averaging 16.95 percent, before rising steadily in 2022 due to higher import costs and supply disruptions.

It crossed the 20 percent mark in August 2022 and reached record highs in subsequent years, peaking around 34 percent in mid-2024.

The report says, “In September 2025, the Headline inflation rate eased to 18.02 percent relative to the August 2025 headline inflation rate of 20.12 percent.

“Looking at the movement, the September 2025 Headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 2.1 percent compared to the August 2025 Headline inflation rate.

“In addition, on a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 14.68% lower than the rate recorded in September 2024 (32.7 percent).

“This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in September 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., September 2024), though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100.

“However, 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 rate recorded in August 2025 (0.74 percent).

“This means that in September 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in August 2025.”

Since early 2025, however, inflation has gradually declined, supported by recent improvements in the exchange rate and energy markets.