Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased slightly to 15.91 per cent in June 2026, down from 15.93 per cent recorded in May, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The marginal decline of 0.02 percentage points ends three consecutive months of rising inflation since March 2026. The NBS attributed the slowdown mainly to a drop in core inflation, which fell to 15.92 per cent in June from 16.82 per cent in May.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation also declined to 1.66 per cent in June, compared with 1.75 per cent in May, indicating that the pace of increase in the general price level slowed during the month.
Despite the improvement in headline inflation, food inflation continued to climb, rising to 17.52 per cent in June from 16.96 per cent in May. The increase was driven by higher prices of items including crayfish, fresh pepper, fresh tomatoes, dried green peas, yam flour, water yam, beef, bananas, cassava flour, cowpea, garri, Irish potatoes and yam tubers.
The NBS also reported that food inflation rose by 3.75 per cent on a month-on-month basis in June, compared with 2.98 per cent in May.
State-by-state data showed that Kogi recorded the highest year-on-year food inflation rate at 53.02 per cent, followed by Niger at 43.83 per cent and Benue at 40.83 per cent.
The slowest year-on-year increases were recorded in Katsina (19.15 per cent), Rivers (23.81 per cent) and Imo (24.60 per cent).
On a month-on-month basis, Katsina posted the highest food inflation rate at 16.82 per cent, followed by Kebbi (9.79 per cent) and Niger (8.96 per cent). In contrast, Borno (-3.54 per cent), Benue (-2.36 per cent) and Bayelsa (-1.34 per cent) recorded the slowest food price increases during the month.
