The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Nigeria’s recent decline in inflation, if sustained, could ease cost-of-living pressures and support economic stability.
On Thursday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined to 15.15 percent in December 2025.
Commenting on the development,Christian Ebeke, IMF resident
representative for Nigeria said the outcome is a positive signal for the
economy.
“We welcome the December Consumer Price Index inflation
figures released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, which show an easing of
inflation that, if sustained, will help reduce cost-of-living pressures and
support macroeconomic stability,” the IMF said.
The NBS adopted a 12-month reference period for 2024 after
rebasing the index, replacing the single-month approach to reduce inflation
exaggeration.
The IMF lauded Nigeria’s revised inflation methodology,
saying it is critical to improving the quality of inflation data and aligns
with established global standards.
“The release reflects a welcome change in methodology that
aligns Nigeria’s CPI calculation with international best practices, as set out
by ECOWAS and the IMF’s 2020 CPI Manual,” the fund said.
The IMF noted that the NBS now links the old consumer price
index (CPI) to the rebased and reweighted index using 2024 as the reference
year, making the data more stable and comparable over time.
According to IMF, although Nigeria’s 2025 inflation figures
were revised due to methodological changes, the inflation trend still declined
throughout the year.
The bureau had, on January 12, projected a temporary
“artificial spike” in the country’s December 2025 inflation rate.
Adeyemi Adeniran, statistician-general of the federation,
said the spike would result from the adjustment in the reference period,
otherwise known as the base year.
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