The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Wednesday that Nigeria's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 15.38 percent in March, up from 15.06 percent in February. The figure remains well below the 27.35 percent recorded for the same month in 2025.
Month‑on‑month, the headline CPI increased by 4.18 percent in March, compared with a 2.01 percent rise in February. Food inflation for the year stood at 14.31 percent, a sharp drop from the 25.22 percent seen in March 2025. The monthly food index grew 4.17 percent, 0.52 percent lower than the 4.69 percent rise recorded the month before.
The NBS linked the easing of food price pressure to lower costs for items such as yam, ginger, cassava tuber, groundnuts, Irish potatoes, ogbono, tomatoes and loose‑sold cassava flour. Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural and energy prices, was 16.21 percent year‑on‑year in March, down from 27.12 percent in the comparable 2025 period. The core index advanced 4.03 percent month‑on‑month, a notable increase from 0.89 percent the previous month.
The modest slowdown in food inflation, reflected in a 4.17 percent monthly rise, signals that recent price adjustments for staples are beginning to temper the cost of living surge.
Behind the numbers, the NBS data suggests that supply‑side factors—such as improved harvests or market interventions affecting yam, ginger and other key commodities—are easing pressure on households. Yet the overall CPI still hovers above 15 percent, indicating that broader price dynamics remain stubbornly high.
For ordinary Nigerians, especially low‑income earners who allocate a large share of income to food, the slight dip offers marginal relief but does not erase the strain of persistent inflation on daily budgets.
This pattern of a temporary dip amid still‑elevated inflation mirrors the volatility that has characterized Nigeria's price environment since 2025, underscoring the challenge of achieving sustained price stability.
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