By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased marginally by 0.02 percent from the 15.93 percent recorded in May to 15.91 percent in June 2026.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in June 2026 was 1.66 percent, which was 0.09 percent lower than the rate recorded in May 2026 (1.7 percent).
According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday, July 15, the annual inflation rate declined marginally despite a month-on-month increase in food prices.
The increase in food prices was driven by increases in the prices of fresh pepper, tomatoes, crayfish, beef, garri, yam, and other staple food items.
The June 2026 inflation figure marks the first decline in the headline inflation rate after three consecutive monthly increases, from 15.06 percent in February to 15.38 percent in March, 15.69 percent in April, and 15.93 percent in May.
“In June 2026, the headline inflation rate was 15.91 percent, down from 15.93 percent in May 2026, and stood at 25.29 percent in the same month of the preceding year (June 2025).
“Looking at the movement, the June 2026 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.02 percent compared to the May 2026 headline inflation rate,” the NBS said.
The bureau also said the CPI increased to 143.0 in June from 140.7 in May, reflecting a 2.3-point increase over the previous month.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation slowed to 1.66 percent in June from 1.75 percent in May.
“This means that in June 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in May 2026,” the report added.
An analysis of the inflation report showed that food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the largest contributor to headline inflation at 6.37 percentage points.
Restaurants and accommodation services contributed 2.06 percentage points, transport accounted for 1.70 percentage points, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels added 1.34 percentage points. Education services contributed 0.99 percentage points, while health accounted for 0.96 percentage points.
Food inflation stood at 17.52 percent year-on-year in June, compared with 25.41 percent in the corresponding period of 2025.
However, on a month-on-month basis, food inflation rose to 3.75 percent from 2.98 percent recorded in May.
The NBS attributed the month-on-month increase in food inflation to higher prices of several food commodities.
It said, “This can be attributed to the rate of change in the average prices of the following products: crayfish, pepper (fresh), tomatoes (fresh), green peas (dried), fresh pepper, yam flour (sold loose), water yam, beef, banana, cassava flour, cowpea, garri, Irish potatoes, yam tuber, etc.
Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, fell to 15.92 percent year-on-year in June from 25.41 percent recorded in June 2025. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation decelerated to 1.66 percent from 1.94 percent in May.
The report also showed that the average headline inflation rate for the 12 months ending June 2026 stood at 17.63 percent, down from 29.82 percent recorded in June 2025. The average annual food inflation rate similarly declined to 16.42 percent from 31.93 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The urban inflation rate was 16.08 percent year-on-year, while the rural inflation rate stood at 15.48 percent. On a month-on-month basis, urban inflation rose to 2.13 percent from 1.99 percent, while rural inflation slowed to 0.52 percent from 1.17 percent recorded in May.
A state-level analysis showed that Niger recorded the highest annual all-items inflation rate at 42.23 percent, followed by Kogi at 41.59 percent and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at 39.91 percent.
On the other hand, Imo recorded the lowest annual inflation rate at 19.47 percent, followed by Ebonyi at 20.79 percent and Katsina at 21.87 percent.
For food inflation, Kogi posted the highest year-on-year rate at 53.02 percent, followed by Niger at 43.83 percent and Benue at 40.83 percent. Katsina recorded the lowest food inflation rate at 19.15 percent, followed by Rivers at 23.81 percent and Imo at 24.60 percent.
