February 16, (THEWILL) — Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined by 12.51 percentage points year-on-year to 15.1 percent in January 2026, underscoring a sustained moderation in price pressures across the economy, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The January figure also reflects a marginal month-on-month easing, as inflation fell from 15.15 percent recorded in December 2025 to 15.10 percent, representing a 0.05 percentage point decline.
The NBS said the development signals a continuation of the gradual slowdown in inflation observed in recent months.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation dropped sharply to -2.88 percent in January 2026, compared with 0.54 percent in December 2025. This indicates that average prices in the economy declined during the month under review relative to the previous month.
The bureau noted that the year-on-year moderation was significant when compared with the 27.61 percent inflation rate recorded in January 2025, highlighting a marked deceleration in the pace of increase in consumer prices over the past year.
The NBS also reported a sharp moderation in food inflation, which stood at 8.89 per cent year-on-year in January 2026, compared with 29.63 percent in December 2025. The decline was attributed to lower prices of items, including water yams, eggs, green peas, groundnut oil, soya beans, palm oil, maize grains, guinea corn, beans, beef, melon (egusi), cassava tuber and cowpeas.
On a state-by-state basis, food inflation was highest year-on-year in Kogi (19.84 percent), Benue (18.38 percent) and Adamawa (17.29 percent), while Ebonyi (1.69 percent), Abia (3.23 percent) and Imo (3.74 percent) recorded the slowest increases.
The easing inflation comes amid improved food supply conditions, relative stability in the foreign exchange market and expectations of more stable energy prices, particularly petroleum products, raising cautious optimism about price trends in the months ahead.
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