National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has said inflation declined to 22.97% in May 2025 from the 23.71% recorded in April 2025.
Statistician General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, made this known in a press statement issued in Abuja, yesterday.
According to him, “The headline inflation rate for May 2025 decreased to 22.97% compared to the April 2025 rate of 23.71%. This represents a decline of 0.74% from April 2025″.
The statistician general said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in May 2025 was 1.53% which was 0.33% lower than the rate recorded in April 2025 ,1.86%.
Contributions to Headline Inflation at the divisional level, the three major contributors to the headline inflation were Food and non-alcoholic Beverages: 9.20%, Restaurants & Accommodation Services: 2.97%, and Transport: 2.45%; while the least contributors were Recreation, Sport, and Culture: 0.07%, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco, and Narcotics: 0.09%, and Insurance and Financial Services: 0.11%, he said.
Besides, on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in May 2025 was 2.19%, which rose by 0.13% compared to April 2025 ,2.06%.
Adeniran, also said the increase can be attributed to the rate of increase in average prices of items such as Yam, Avenger (Ogbono/Apon), Cassava Tuber, Maize Flour, Fresh Pepper, Sweet Potatoes, etc.
On core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, NBS said it stood at 22.28% in May 2025 on a year-on-year basis.
He said on a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 1.10% in May 2025, down 0.24 percentage points from April 2025 ,1.34%.
He said the inflation rate of the newly introduced sub-indices for May 2025 shows that both Farm Produce and Goods stood at 22.38% and 9.39% compared to April 2025, which were 0.95% and 1.89% respectively.
He added that conversely, Services and Energy stood at 1.79% and -0.43% compared to 2.20% and 13.6% recorded in the previous month, respectively.
The NBS boss further said on a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate in May 2025 was 23.14%.
According to him, on a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.40% in May 2025, up by 0.22% compared to April 2025 ,1.18%.
Adeniran, said the rural inflation rate in May 2025 was 22.70% on a year-on-year basis.
On a month-on-month basis, according to him, the rural inflation rate in May 2025 was 1.83% down by 1.72% compared to April 2025 ,3.56%
Continuing, the statement noted that on State-Level Analyses: The State CPI for April 2025 for some states has been revised due to updated information.
He said the change affected all states except for Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, and the FCT.
He stressed that the revision, however, does not affect the National CPI for April 2025.
In the period under review, NBS said the all Items Inflation all-item index on a year-on-year basis, was highest in Borno ,38.93%, Niger ,34.97%, and Plateau ,32.35%, while it recorded the lowest in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis in Katsina ,16.25%, Adamawa ,18.20%, Delta ,18.41%.
He said on a month-on-month basis, May 2025 recorded the highest increases in Bayelsa ,9.11%, Bauchi ,4.85%, and Borno ,4.42%, while it recorded declines in Kaduna ,-6.75%, Jigawa ,-4.40% and Edo ,-2.94%.
He said State-level analyses of the food index in May 2025 show that food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Borno ,64.36%, Bayelsa ,39.85%, Taraba ,38.58%; while it recorded the slowest rise in Katsina ,6.90 , Rivers ,9.18 and Kwara ,11.31 per cent). On a month-on-month basis, in May 2025 food inflation was highest in Bayelsa ,12.68% Cross River, 11.15%, and Anambra (9.10% while states like Katsina (-5.42 per cent), Jigawa (-4.02 per cent) and Kaduna (-3.27 per cent) recorded declines in food inflation on a month-on-month basis.
“The National Bureau of Statistics is pleased to announce the release of the latest Consumer Price Index CPI, figures for May 2025. Following the completion of the recent rebasing exercise, this report is centred on a new CPI base year of 2024 and a weight reference period of 2023. Hence, the Consumer Price Index rose to 121.35 in May 2025, and reflects a 1.83-point increase from the preceding month.”
