Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 21.8 per cent in July, down from 22.22 per cent in June, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This marks the fourth consecutive monthly decline in inflation this year.

The report showed that the month-on-month inflation rate rose to 1.99 per cent in July, compared to 1.68 per cent in June an increase of 0.31 percentage points.

Food inflation stood at 22.74 per cent year-on-year, while on a monthly basis, it slowed slightly to 3.12 per cent in July, down from 3.25 per cent in June. Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural products and energy, fell to 21.33 per cent in July, compared to 27.47 per cent in the same month last year.

The main drivers of the CPI during the period were food and non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants and accommodation services, and transport.

Despite the improved figures, many Nigerians remain critical of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms since he assumed office in May 2023. Rising living costs have triggered widespread protests, including the #EndBadGovernance demonstrations in August 2024, largely fuelled by hunger and economic hardship.

However, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, commended the government’s efforts after meeting Tinubu on Thursday.

“We think that the President and his team and we just exchanged with him have worked hard to stabilise the economy, and you cannot improve an economy unless it’s stable, so he has to be given the credit for the stability of the economy,” she said.

Okonjo-Iweala added that while reforms were headed in the right direction, the next focus must be on growth and social protection.

“What is needed next is growth. We now need to grow the economy, and we need to put in a social safety net, so that people who are feeling the pinch of the reforms can also have some support to be able to weather the hardship,” she stressed.