The National Bureau of Statistics says Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 24.23  per cent in March 2025. The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index and Inflation Report for March 2025, which was released in Abuja.

According to the report, the headline inflation showed an increase of 1.05  per cent compared to the 23.18 per cent recorded in February 2025.

Furthermore, the report said that on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in March 2025 was 3.90  per cent, 1.85 per cent higher than the rate recorded in February 2025 at 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.

The report said the increase in the headline index for  March 2025 on a year-on-year and month-on-month basis was attributed to the increase in some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level. These increases were observed in food and non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants and accommodation services. Others were transport, housing, water, electricity, gas, fuel, education services, health, clothing, and footwear.

Others are information and communication, personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services,  furnishings, household equipment and maintenance, insurance and financial services, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics, recreation sports and culture.

The report said the food inflation rate in  March  2025 was 21.79 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

However,  on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in March was 2.18 per cent, which increased by 0.50 per cent compared to the 1.67 per cent recorded in February 2025.

The NBS said the increase in the food inflation figure was attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of ginger (fresh), garri (yellow), broken rice (Ofada), and honey (natural production). Others are crabs, potatoes, plantain flour, periwinkle (unshelled), and pepper (fresh).

The report said all items less farm produce and energy’’ or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 24.43 per cent in March 2025  on a year-on-year basis. On a month-on-month basis, the Core Inflation rate was 3.73 per cent in March, which increased by  1.21 per cent compared to the 2.52 per cent recorded in February.

The NBS said on a month-on-month basis, the farm produce rate stood at 2.64 per cent compared to the 1.77 per cent recorded in February 2025.
The report said the energy rate stood at 9.21 per cent in March on a month-on-month basis, compared to the –0.99 per cent recorded in February.

It said services stood at  3.344  per cent in March  2025 on a month-on-month basis, compared to 3.38 per cent in February. Meanwhile, goods had a rate of 3.89  per cent on a month-on-month basis compared to the 1.29 per cent recorded in February.

The report said that, on a year-on-year basis, in March  2025, the urban inflation rate was 26.12. On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 3.96  in March 2025, which increased by 1.56 per cent compared to February at 2.40 per cent.

The report said that, on a year-on-year basis,   the rural inflation rate was 20.89  per cent in March. On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate was 3.73  per cent in March, which increased by 2.57 per cent compared to February at 1.16 per cent.

(NAN)