JUST IN: Nigeria’s Inflation Drops to 32.15% in August – NBS Report

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced a decrease in Nigeria’s headline inflation, which fell to 32.15% in August 2024. This marks the second decline in 2024, following a 19-month inflationary surge that peaked at 34.19% in June.

According to the report released by the NBS on Monday, the August inflation rate represents a 1.25 percentage point decrease compared to the 33.40% recorded in July. However, the year-on-year inflation rate for August 2024 remains significantly higher, rising by 6.35 percentage points compared to the 25.80% recorded in August 2023.

Despite the annual increase, the NBS highlighted a slight improvement on a month-to-month basis, with inflation in August standing at 2.22%, down from July’s 2.28%.

Food inflation also surged, reaching 37.52% in August 2024, up by 8.18 percentage points from the 29.34% recorded in the same period last year. The NBS attributed this rise to increased prices in staple items like bread, maize, yam, cassava, and palm oil. However, the month-to-month food inflation rate saw a slight drop to 2.37% in August, down from 2.47% in July, due to easing prices in tobacco, coffee, groundnut oil, and certain tubers.

For the 12 months ending in August 2024, the average annual food inflation rate stood at 36.99%, reflecting an 11.98 percentage point increase from the 25.01% recorded for the same period the previous year.