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 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.
