March 16, (THEWILL) — Nigeria’s price growth slowed in February as the country’s headline inflation rate declined to 15.06 percent, down from 15.10 percent in January, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Monday, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The marginal decline of 0.04 percentage points suggests a gradual easing in overall price pressures in Africa’s largest economy, offering a modest sign of relief for households and businesses grappling with high living costs.
Data from the statistics agency showed that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate in February 2026 was 11.21 percentage points lower than the 26.27 percent recorded in February 2025, indicating a significant slowdown in price growth compared with the same period last year.
The development highlights an improving inflation trend, even though the general price level across goods and services continues to rise across the country amid global rise in oil price.
However, on a month-on-month basis, the report showed that headline inflation increased to 2.01 percent in February 2026, representing a 4.89 percentage point rise compared with the –2.88 percent recorded in January 2026.
This indicates that while the annual inflation trend is easing, the pace of price increases accelerated during the month of February.
The report further showed that the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending February 2026 stood at 21.03 percent, representing a 3.02 percentage point increase compared with the 18.01 percent recorded in February 2025.
A breakdown of the figures showed that the urban inflation rate stood at 15.53 percent on a year-on-year basis in February 2026, which was 12.96 percentage points lower than the 28.49 percent recorded in February 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, urban inflation rose to 2.55 percent, up by 5.27 percentage points compared with –2.72 percent recorded in January 2026, indicating stronger price pressures in major cities.
The twelve-month average urban inflation rate stood at 21.25 percent in February 2026, representing an increase of 1.81 percentage points compared with 19.44 percent recorded in February 2025.
In rural areas, the inflation rate stood at 13.93 percent year-on-year, which was 8.80 percentage points lower than the 22.73 percent recorded in February 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, rural inflation stood at 0.71 percent, representing a 4.00 percentage point increase compared with –3.29 percent recorded in January 2026.
The twelve-month average rural inflation rate was 20.28 percent in February 2026, which was 3.80 percentage points higher than the 16.47 percent recorded in February 2025.
Meanwhile, food inflation stood at 12.12 percent year-on-year in February 2026, representing a 14.86 percentage point decline compared with the 26.98 percent recorded in February 2025.
However, on a month-on-month basis, food inflation rose sharply to 4.69 percent, which was 10.70 percentage points higher than the –6.02 percent recorded in January 2026.
The statistics bureau attributed the monthly increase largely to rising prices of several food items, including beans, carrots, okazi leaf, cassava tuber, crayfish, millet flour, yam flour, snails, dried ogbono and cowpeas.
The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending February 2026 was 19.08 percent, representing a sharp drop of 18.31 percentage points compared with 37.40 percent recorded in February 2025.
Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 15.88 percent year-on-year in February 2026, representing a 9.78 percentage point decline compared with the 25.66 percent recorded in February 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 0.89 percent, which was 2.58 percentage points higher than the –1.69 percent recorded in January 2026.
Overall, the average twelve-month inflation rate for the period ending February 2026 stood at 22.00 percent, which was 5.25 percentage points lower than the 27.25 percent recorded in February 2025, pointing to a broader easing of inflationary pressures across the Nigerian economy.
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