Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 20.12 per cent in August 2025 when compared to the July 2025 rate, which stood at 21.88 per cent, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The NBS said the rate showed a decrease of 1.76 per cent, as against the July 2025 headline inflation rate.
The statistics office says in its report that the month-on-month headline inflation rate in August 2025 was 0.74 per cent, while the food inflation rate was 1.65 per cent on a monthly basis.
On a year-on-year basis, the rate was 12.03 per cent lower than the rate recorded in August 2024 (32.15 per cent).
This, the NBS said, showed that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in August 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., August 2024), “though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100”.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August 2025 was 0.74 per cent, which was 1.25 per cent lower than the rate recorded in July 2025 (1.99 per cent).
“This means that in August 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2025.
“The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 126.8 in August 2025 reflecting a 0.9-point increase from the preceding month (125.9) ,” the NBS said in the report.
There have been calls on the Federal Government to introduce measures that will cushion the effect of the rising cost of living for Nigerians.
World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends a press conference on WTO trade forecast at the intergovernmental trade organization in Geneva on April 12, 2022.
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
In August, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urged the government to put social safety nets in place for poor Nigerians affected by economic reforms.
“We think that the President and his team have worked hard to stabilise the economy. You cannot really improve an economy unless it is stable. So, he has to be given the credit for the stability of the economy. The reforms have been in the right direction, she said in a chat with newsmen after she met with the President Bola Tinubu, the WTO boss said,
“What is needed next is growth; we now need to grow the economy and we need to put in social safety nets so that people who are feeling the pinch of the reforms can also have some support to weather the hardship. That’s the next step,” the former minister added.
