Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 15.39% in August 2026 as the pace of increase in food prices slowed sharply, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index report for August 2026 released on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, showing a marginal decline from the 15.43% recorded in July and a much sharper moderation from 23.14% in August 2025.
The August figure marked the third consecutive month of moderation in headline inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, inflation slowed to 0.71% in August from 1.57% in July. The NBS said this meant that average prices of goods and services continued to increase during the month but at a slower rate than in July.
Food prices provided the biggest shift in the latest data. Food inflation fell to 19.57% year-on-year in August from 20.31% in July and 25.30% in August 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation dropped sharply to 1.02% in August from 5.56% in July, a decline of 4.55 percentage points. The NBS said the moderation was driven mainly by changes in the average prices of several food items, including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat.
The latest figures, however, do not mean that food has become cheaper across the board. Rather, they show that the rate at which food prices increased in August was lower than in July. The NBS described the movement as average food prices increasing “at a decreasing rate.”
Food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the largest contributor to annual headline inflation, accounting for 6.16 percentage points. Restaurants and accommodation services contributed 1.99 percentage points, while transport contributed 1.64 percentage points, according to the NBS.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural produce and energy prices, also moderated to 13.29% year-on-year in August from 14.97% in July and 22.93% in August 2025. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation stood at -0.06%, compared with 0.15% in July.
Inflation remained higher in urban areas on a year-on-year basis, at 15.88%, compared with 14.23% in rural areas. However, monthly price movements diverged, with urban inflation slowing to 0.28% from 1.90% in July, while rural inflation accelerated to 1.79% from 0.78%.
The August figures point to a slower pace of price increases across several parts of the consumer basket, particularly food, although the year-on-year rates show that consumers are still paying considerably more for many goods and services than they did a year earlier.
