Nigeria’s inflation rate eased for the seventh consecutive month to 16.05 per cent in October from 18.02 per cent a month earlier.
“The October 2025 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.96 per cent compared to the September 2025 headline inflation rate,” the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated in the official data issued on Monday.
Inflation indicators compare prices of goods and services over 12 months. A decline does not necessarily imply a reduction in prices; instead, it shows the rate of price increase had fallen compared to previous months.
On a year-on-year basis, the bureau said, the headline inflation rate was 17.82 per cent lower than the rate recorded in October 2024 (33.88 per cent).
This, it said, shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) decreased in October 2025 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., October 2024), though with a different base year, November 2009 = 100.
On a month-on-month basis, the NBS said the headline inflation rate in October 2025 was 0.93 per cent, which was 0.21 per cent higher than the rate recorded in September 2025 (0.72 per cent).
“This means that in October 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in September 2025,” it said.
Food inflation
The food inflation rate in October 2025 stood at 13.12 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This was 26.04 per cent points lower compared to the rate recorded in October 2024 (39.16 per cent).
The NBS said the significant decline in the annual food inflation figure is technically due to the change in the base year.
However, it said, on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in October 2025 was -0.37 per cent, up by 1.21 per cent compared to September 2025 (-1.57 per cent).
“The increase can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of onions (fresh), fruits (oranges, pineapple), shrimp, groundnuts (unshelled), vegetables (ugu, okazi leaf), and meat (goat meat, cow tail, liver), among others,” it said.
It explained that the average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending October 2025 over the previous twelve-month average was 21.96 per cent, which was 16.16 per cent points lower compared with the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2024 (38.12 per cent).
Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile items such as energy and farm produce, stood at 18.69 per cent in October 2025 on a year-on-year basis, showing a decline of 9.68 per cent when compared to the 28.37 per cent recorded in October 2024.
On a month-on-month basis, the bureau said the Core Inflation rate was 1.416 per cent in October 2025, down by 0.001 per cent compared to September 2025 (1.417 per cent).
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“The average twelve-month annual inflation rate was 21.61 per cent for the twelve months ending October 2025, which was 4.51 per cent points lower than the 26.12 per cent recorded in October 2024,” it said.
Across states, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Ogun (20.85 per cent), Nasarawa (19.96 per cent), and Ekiti (19.70 per cent), while Akwa Ibom (3.98 per cent), Katsina (4.15 per cent), and Yobe (4.29 per cent) recorded the slowest rise.
“On a month-on-month basis, however, October 2025 Food inflation was highest in Bauchi (6.77 per cent), Abuja (5.11 per cent), and Niger (4.84 per cent), while Katsina (-7.72 per cent), Oyo (-5.89 per cent), and Taraba (-4.89 per cent) recorded a decline in food inflation on a month-on-month basis,” it said.
