Nigeria’s inflation rate slowed in November 2025, offering cautious optimism for households and businesses grappling with rising prices. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the headline inflation rate declined to 14.45% in November from 16.05% recorded in October, marking a notable easing in the pace of price increases.
The NBS explained that the November inflation rate reflected a month-on-month decrease of 1.6 percentage points compared to October 2025. While this moderation signals slower price growth, it does not mean that prices are falling outright. Rather, it indicates that the rate at which prices are increasing has reduced relative to previous months.
On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 20.15 percentage points lower than the 34.60% recorded in November 2024. The statistics agency noted that this comparison reflects changes in the base year used for calculation, with November 2009 set as the reference point.
However, the month-on-month data shows a different trend. The NBS reported that the inflation rate rose by 1.22% in November 2025, up from 0.93% in October. This suggests that average prices increased faster in November than in the preceding month, despite the broader slowdown observed in the annual figures.
Food Inflation Trends
Food prices, a major driver of Nigeria’s overall inflation rate, also showed mixed signals. On a year-on-year basis, food inflation stood at 11.08% in November 2025, representing a sharp drop of 28.85 percentage points from the 39.93% recorded in November 2024. The NBS attributed this significant decline largely to the change in the base year.
Conversely, on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate rose to 1.13% in November 2025, up from a decline of 0.37% in October. The increase was driven by higher average prices of staple items such as dried tomatoes, cassava tubers, eggs, crayfish, onions, pepper, and other food products, underscoring ongoing pressure on household budgets despite the easing headline inflation rate.
The bureau further noted that the average annual food inflation rate for the twelve months ending November 2025 was 19.68%, which was significantly lower than the 38.67% recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
Core Inflation and State-Level Data
Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy and is a key component of the overall inflation rate, stood at 18.04% year-on-year in November 2025. This represented a decline of 10.71 percentage points compared to the 28.75% recorded in November 2024. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation eased slightly to 1.28%, down from 1.42% in October.
The average twelve-month inflation rate for the period ending November 2025 was 20.76%, reflecting a decrease of 5.88 percentage points from the 26.64% recorded a year earlier.
Across states, disparities in food inflation persisted. On a year-on-year basis, food inflation was highest in Kogi (17.83%), Ogun (16.52%), and Rivers (16.11%), while Imo (3.52%), Katsina (3.65%), and Akwa Ibom (4.52%) recorded the slowest increases. Month-on-month figures showed Yobe, Katsina, and Ondo posting the highest food inflation, while Imo, Nasarawa, and Enugu recorded declines, highlighting uneven inflationary pressures across the country despite the overall easing in Nigeria’s inflation rate.