Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed to 24.23 percent in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This was announced on Tuesday in its consumer price index (CPI) for March 2025.
In February, the inflation rate stood at 23.18 percent, the new rate indicates a 1.05 percent upward movement of inflation in the country.
“Looking at the movement, the March 2025 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05% 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%, which was 1.85% higher than the rate recorded in February 2025 (2.04%).
“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.”
The NBS explained that contributions of items on the divisional level are food and non-alcoholic beverages, 9.28 percent; restaurants and accommodation services, 2.99 percent; transport, 2.47 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 1.95 percent, education services 1.44 percent, health 1.40 percent.
It said the food inflation rate in March 2025 was 21.79 percent on a year-on-year basis.
“However, on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in March 2025 was 2.18 percent, up by 0.50 percent compared to February 2025 (1.67 percent),” the NBS added.
It attributed the increase to the rise in the average prices of ginger (fresh), garri (Yellow), broken rice (Ofada), honey (natural production), crabs, potatoes, plantain flour, periwinkle (unshelled), pepper (fresh), etc.
In January, the inflation rate returned to 24.48 percent following a rebasing of CPI.
The new rate also signals a return to rising levels of inflation in Nigeria before rebasing of CPI.
