Raphael Kanu
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate dropped to 22.22 percent in June 2025, down from 22.97 percent recorded in May. This was disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. The latest Consumer Price Index report shows that the year-on-year figure reflects a 0.75 percentage point decline from the previous month and a notable 11.97 percentage point drop compared to June 2024, which recorded an inflation rate of 34.19 percent. The decline is being reported against the backdrop of a rebased index, with 2024 adopted as the new base year.
On a month-on-month basis, however, inflation rose slightly to 1.68 percent in June, compared to 1.53 percent in May, suggesting that although the annual pace of inflation has eased, prices are still rising more quickly from one month to the next. The Consumer Price Index rose from 121.4 in May to 123.4 in June, indicating persistent price pressures, particularly in food, transport, and housing.
The NBS report noted that the Consumer Price Index rose to 123.4 in June 2025, reflecting a 2.0-point increase from the preceding month. In June 2025, the headline inflation rate eased to 22.22 percent relative to the May 2025 rate of 22.97 percent. Compared to June 2024, the year-on-year inflation rate dropped by 11.97 percent, demonstrating a notable reduction in price increases over the year, though under a newly rebased structure using 2024 as the base year.
Food inflation stood at 21.97 percent year-on-year in June, a steep decline from 40.87 percent recorded in June 2024. This significant drop is attributed largely to the base year effect. However, on a month-on-month basis, food inflation rose to 3.25 percent in June, up from 2.19 percent in May. The rise was driven by increases in the prices of staple items such as tomatoes, pepper, dried green peas, crayfish, shrimps, meat, plantain flour, and ground pepper. The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-month period ending in June 2025 was 28.28 percent, down from 35.3 percent over a similar period the previous year.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile items like agricultural produce and energy, declined year-on-year to 22.76 percent in June 2025 from 27.4 percent in June 2024. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation rose to 2.46 percent in June, up from 1.10 percent in May, indicating renewed pressure in non-food components. The average twelve-month inflation rate for core items stood at 24.14 percent in June 2025, slightly higher than the 24.01 percent recorded in the same period of 2024.
The report also showed divergence between inflation trends in urban and rural areas. Urban inflation dropped to 22.72 percent year-on-year in June, down from 36.55 percent in June 2024, while rising to 2.11 percent month-on-month from 1.40 percent in May. The twelve-month average for urban inflation also declined to 28.16 percent. Rural inflation followed a similar trend, easing to 20.85 percent year-on-year from 32.09 percent, and slowing on a month-on-month basis to 0.63 percent in June, from 1.83 percent in May. The average annual rural inflation rate stood at 24.65 percent.
At the state level, Borno recorded the highest year-on-year all-items inflation rate at 31.63 percent, followed by Abuja at 26.79 percent and Benue at 25.91 percent. The slowest increases were seen in Zamfara at 9.90 percent, Yobe at 13.51 percent, and Sokoto at 15.78 percent. On a month-on-month basis, the sharpest increases were recorded in Ekiti at 5.39 percent, Delta at 5.15 percent, and Lagos at 5.13 percent, while Zamfara, Niger, and Plateau recorded declines of 6.89, 5.35, and 4.01 percent respectively.
Food inflation was most severe in Borno at 47.40 percent year-on-year, followed by Ebonyi at 30.62 percent and Bayelsa at 28.64 percent. In contrast, Katsina, Adamawa, and Sokoto recorded the slowest food inflation at 6.21, 10.90, and 15.25 percent respectively. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation rose fastest in Enugu at 11.90 percent, Kwara at 9.97 percent, and Rivers at 9.88 percent, while Borno, Sokoto, and Bayelsa recorded declines of 7.63, 6.43, and 6.34 percent respectively.
The components contributing most to the headline index were food and non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants and accommodation services, transport, housing, electricity, gas and other fuels, education, health, and clothing and footwear. While the annual easing of inflation may suggest some stabilization in macroeconomic indicators, the rising monthly rates highlight continued cost-of-living pressures for many Nigerian households.