Nigeria’s headline inflation rose to 24.23% year-on-year (Y-o-) in March 2025, up from 23.18% recorded in February, representing 1.05 percentage points increase.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its published ‘Consumer Price Index March 2025’ report released on Tuesday disclosed that when analyzed on a month-on-month basis, inflation rose sharply by 3.90% in March, compared to 2.04% in February
The report partly reads: “In March 2025, the Headline inflation rate rose to 24.23 per cent relative to the February 2025 headline inflation rate of 23.18 per cent. Looking at the movement, the March 2025 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05 per cent compared to the February 2025 Headline inflation rate.
“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in March 2025 was 3.90 per cent, which was 1.85 per cent higher than the rate recorded in February 2025 (2.04 per cent). This means that in March 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in February 2025.”
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The statistics agency attributed the major drivers of the year-on-year inflation rate to food and non-alcoholic beverages, which contributed 9.28 percentage points; followed by restaurants and accommodation services (2.99 per cent), transport (2.47 per cent), and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (1.95 per cent).
It listed other contributory divisions with notable contributions as including education, health, and clothing and footwear.
During the month under review, the Bureau reported that Food inflation rose to 21.79% year-on-year up from 20.01% in February, adding that in a month-on-month basis, food prices increases by 2.18%, driven by price increases in fresh ginger, yellow garri, ofada rice, honey, fresh pepper, potatoes, and plantain flour.
According to the CPI report, in March this year Core inflation, which excludes prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, increased to 24.43% year-on-year, with a month-on-month increase of 3.73%, compared to 2.52% recorded in the preceding month
A further analysis of the report on Urban and Rural inflation trends reflected that inflation was higher in urban areas, where the year-on-year rate stood at 26.12%, compared to 20.89% in rural areas.
On a monthly basis, urban inflation rose by 3.96%, while rural inflation increased by 3.73% reflecting the vulnerability of urban consumers to price shocks, particularly in housing, transport, and service-related costs, than their rural counterparts.
The NBS further reported that on state profile, Kaduna recorded the highest year-on-year inflation at 33.33%, followed by Osun at 32.08% and Kebbi at 30.74% while the lowest rates were recorded in Akwa Ibom at 12.81% Bayelsa at 14.02%, and Sokoto at 14.83%.
On a monthly basis, Kaduna again led with the highest rise at 18.85%, while Sokoto, Nasarawa, and Kwara recorded declines.
The report showed that in the month under review, Food inflation was highest in Oyo at 34.41%, followed by Kaduna at 31.14% and Kebbi at 30.85%, while the slowest food price increases were recorded in Bayelsa at 9.61%, Adamawa at 12.41%, and Akwa Ibom at 12.60%
