Nigeria‘s headline inflation has dropped to 21.34 per cent from the 21.47 per cent recorded in November 2022, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for December, released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“In December 2022, the headline inflation rate eased to 21.34% compared to November 2022 headline inflation rate, which was 21.47 per cent,” stated the report.

This is the first time in 11 months that there will be a decline in the country’s inflation rate on a month-on-month basis.

The data suggests that the headline inflation rate eased by 0.13 per cent in December 2022 compared to November’s inflation data.

“However, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.72 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2021, which was (15.63 per cent). This shows that the headline inflation rate increased in the month of December 2022 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2021),” the NBS report added.

Comparing the most recent data to December 2021, when the inflation rate was 15.63 per cent before falling to 15.60 per cent in January 2022, the rate is still high.

According to NBS, food inflation decreased from the previous month’s 24.13 per cent to 23.75 per cent in the month under review.