By Kofoworola Fakeye, JKNewsMedia Reporter
CONSUMER PRICES continued to rise in May as Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 15.93 percent, marking the third consecutive monthly rise in 2026, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
JKNewsMedia.com reports that the NBS reported that the CPI rose to 140.7 in May from 138.3 in April. On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation stood at 1.75 percent, down from 2.13 percent recorded in April.
According to the bureau, the annual inflation rate rose from 15.69 percent in April to 15.93 percent in May, although it remained below the 26.06 percent recorded in May 2025.
“In May 2026, the headline inflation rate on a month-on-month basis was 1.75 percent, which was 0.39 percent lower than the rate recorded in April 2026 (2.13 percent),” the report stated.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the largest contributor to headline inflation at 6.38 percentage points.
Restaurants and accommodation services contributed 2.06 percentage points, transport 1.70 percentage points, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels accounted for 1.34 percentage points.
The report showed that average inflation for the 12 months ending May 2026 stood at 18.36 percent compared with 30.57 percent in the corresponding period of 2025.
Food inflation stood at 16.96 percent year on year in May compared with 24.55 percent a year earlier, while month-on-month food inflation eased to 2.98 percent from 3.63 percent in April.
The NBS attributed rising food prices to increases in the cost of onions, maize grains, melon, water yam, cassava flour, crayfish, fresh pepper, tomatoes, wheat grain, cassava tubers, yam tubers, sweet potatoes, ginger, plantain and cowpea.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural produce and energy prices, stood at 16.82 percent year-on-year in May, while month-on-month core inflation rose to 1.94 percent from 1.03 percent in April.
Urban inflation was recorded at 16.07 percent year on year, while rural inflation stood at 15.60 percent.
The report further showed that services inflation stood at 17.92 percent year-on-year.
Imported food inflation was recorded at 14.60 percent annually, while goods inflation stood at 6.62 percent and energy inflation at 5.73 percent.
Among the states, Yobe recorded the highest headline inflation rate at 24.94 percent, followed by Anambra at 23.29 percent and Sokoto at 22.60 per cent.
Niger recorded the lowest annual inflation rate at 3.07 per cent, followed by Plateau at 7.10 per cent and Edo at 7.73 per cent.
While the NBS reports showed that Adamawa recorded the highest annual food inflation rate at 29.62 percent, followed by Kwara at 28.47 percent and Rivers at 28.40 percent; it says Borno recorded food deflation of 6.53 percent.
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