The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported a decline in Nigeria’s headline inflation, which dropped to 32.15% in August 2024. This marks the second consecutive month of easing inflation after a 19-month increase that peaked at 34.19% in June.

“Looking at the movement, the August 2024 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.25% points when compared to the July 2024 headline inflation rate (33.40%),” the NBS said in a report released on Monday.

However, on a year-on-year basis, inflation remains higher than it was in August 2023, where it stood at 25.80%, representing an increase of 6.35 percentage points.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in August 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year,” the report added.

On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August was 2.22%, slightly lower than the 2.28% recorded in July, indicating a slower rate of increase in the average price level.

The report highlighted that food inflation remains a significant driver of the overall inflation rate, with food inflation at 37.52% year-on-year in August 2024. The NBS attributed the rise in food inflation to higher prices of staple items such as bread, maize, yam, cassava, palm oil, and beverages like tea and cocoa.

“The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of bread, maize grains, guinea corn, yam, and vegetable oil,” the report noted.

However, the NBS reported a slight easing in food inflation on a month-on-month basis, which fell to 2.37% in August from 2.47% in July. This was attributed to a decline in the rate of price increases for items such as tobacco, tea, coffee, groundnut oil, and various tubers.

The bureau concluded that the average annual rate of food inflation for the 12 months ending in August 2024 was 36.99%, an 11.98 percentage point increase from the previous year’s average of 25.01%.