Nigeria’s inflation rate saw a notable decrease in July 2024, marking the first decline in 19 months. The headline inflation rate dropped to 33.40%, down from 34.19% recorded in June 2024, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This reduction in inflation represents a 0.79 percentage point decrease from the previous month and is the first downward trend since December 2022, when inflation last fell to 21.34%. Despite this monthly decrease, the year-on-year inflation rate for July 2024 was still significantly higher by 9.32 percentage points compared to the 24.08% recorded in July 2023.
On a monthly basis, the inflation rate for July 2024 was 2.28%, slightly lower than June’s 2.31%. The decrease was primarily influenced by slower price increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages, which contributed 17.30% to the overall year-on-year inflation. Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels followed, contributing 5.59%.
Core Inflation and Food Inflation
Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, rose to 27.47% in July 2024, a 6.99 percentage point increase from 20.47% in July 2023. Month-on-month, core inflation saw a slight rise, moving from 2.06% in June 2024 to 2.16% in July 2024. The twelve-month average core inflation rate stood at 24.65%, up from 18.84% in July 2023.
Food inflation, however, remained high, with a year-on-year rate of 39.53% in July 2024, an increase of 12.55 percentage points from the previous year. Although food prices continued to rise, the rate of increase slowed slightly, with a month-on-month food inflation rate of 2.47% in July 2024, down from 2.55% in June 2024. This deceleration was due to slower price increases for items such as tin milk, baby powdered milk, fresh fish, snail, watermelon, and garri.
Urban and Rural Inflation
Urban inflation rates also reflected a year-on-year increase, reaching 35.77% in July 2024, up by 9.94 percentage points from the 25.83% recorded in July 2023. On a month-on-month basis, urban inflation remained stable at 2.46%. The twelve-month average for urban inflation was 32.89% in July 2024, a significant rise from 22.87% in July 2023.
Rural inflation followed a similar trend, with a year-on-year rate of 31.26% in July 2024, 8.77 percentage points higher than the 22.49% recorded in July 2023. Month-on-month, rural inflation decreased slightly to 2.10% in July 2024, down from 2.17% in June 2024. The twelve-month average rural inflation rate was 28.86%, up from 21.04% in July 2023.
This latest data offers a mixed outlook, with the first signs of inflation easing in nearly two years, but with the overall cost of living still significantly higher than a year ago. The government and economic stakeholders will closely monitor these trends as they work to stabilize prices and support economic growth.
