Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Drops Slightly to 15.39% in August — NBS
By Patience Ikpeme
Nigeria’s inflation rate went down a little in August 2026, according to new figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
The report showed that the country’s headline inflation rate, which measures how fast prices of goods and services are rising, stood at 15.39 per cent in August, compared to 15.43 per cent recorded in July. This means prices are still going up, but not as fast as before.
The NBS also said that inflation on a month-on-month basis dropped sharply, from 1.57 per cent in July to 0.71 per cent in August. This is a fall of 0.86 percentage points, showing that the pace at which prices are rising within the month slowed down considerably.
Food prices, which affect Nigerians the most on a daily basis, also showed some relief. Food inflation stood at 19.57 per cent year-on-year in August, down from 25.30 per cent recorded in the same month last year. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation fell sharply from 5.56 per cent in July to 1.02 per cent in August.
Explaining this, the NBS said, “The food inflation rate in August 2026 was 19.57 per cent on a year-on-year basis and stood at 25.30 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (August 2025).”
The agency added, “On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in August 2026 was 1.02 per cent, down by 4.55 percentage points from July 2026 (5.56 per cent). This shows that the average prices of food items are increasing at a decreasing rate in August 2026.”
In simple terms, this means food prices are still rising, but much more slowly than before.
According to the NBS, the drop in food inflation was mainly due to changes in the prices of items such as palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon (egusi), fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, and frozen chicken and turkey meat.
Looking at the bigger picture, the NBS said that the average food inflation rate for the twelve months ending August 2026 was 15.70 per cent. This is a huge drop of 14.15 percentage points compared to the 29.86 per cent recorded in August 2025.
The report also looked at core inflation, which leaves out prices of farm produce and energy because they tend to change often. Core inflation stood at 13.29 per cent year-on-year in August 2026, a big drop from 22.93 per cent recorded in August 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, core inflation actually went into negative territory, standing at -0.06 per cent in August, compared to 0.15 per cent in July. This means prices in this category, on average, slightly reduced within the month.
The average core inflation rate for the twelve months ending August 2026 was 17.30 per cent, down by 8.85 percentage points from 26.15 per cent recorded in August 2025.
The NBS report also showed that inflation is not the same everywhere in the country. Some states are feeling much higher price pressure than others.
On a year-on-year basis, Lagos recorded the highest headline inflation rate in the country at 23.68 per cent. It was followed by Zamfara at 22.56 per cent and Enugu at 22.06 per cent. On the other end, Sokoto recorded the lowest headline inflation rate at 2.11 per cent, followed by Kebbi at 3.72 per cent and Jigawa at 3.81 per cent.
When it comes to month-on-month figures, Rivers State recorded the highest rate at 6.92 per cent, followed by Osun at 5.61 per cent and Kano at 5.59 per cent. Meanwhile, Anambra recorded the sharpest decline in prices within the month, at -8.83 per cent, followed by Bauchi at -7.13 per cent and Borno at -7.09 per cent.
Food prices also varied widely from state to state. Adamawa recorded the highest year-on-year food inflation rate at 38.85 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 per cent and Bayelsa at 36.20 per cent. On the other hand, Borno recorded the lowest food inflation rate, actually going negative at -4.04 per cent, followed by Jigawa at -0.23 per cent and Kebbi at 3.47 per cent.
On a month-on-month basis, Katsina had the highest food inflation rate at 9.48 per cent, followed by Rivers at 8.86 per cent and Osun at 8.32 per cent. Taraba recorded the biggest drop in food prices for the month, at -12.42 per cent, followed by Borno at -12.15 per cent and Bauchi at -8.88 per cent.
Overall, the NBS report suggests that while Nigerians are still dealing with rising prices, the pace of that increase is beginning to slow down, especially when it comes to food items — a development that may bring some relief to household budgets across the country in the coming months.
