NBS to adjust December inflation data to address artificial spike
Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced plans to ‘normalise’ inflation data for December 2025 due to an expected artificial spike. The adjustment follows the recent rebasing of the Consumer Price Index, which adopted 2024 as the new base year after a 15-year gap. Adeyemi Adeniran, Statistician General of the Federation, explained that the spike is technical and not reflective of real economic changes. The NBS is engaging stakeholders to ensure transparency and clarity about these changes.
TLDR
- NBS will adjust December 2025 inflation data to correct for a technical spike caused by rebasing the CPI.
- The rebasing adopted 2024 as the new base year, replacing the previous 2009 base after 15 years.
- Dr Ayo Anthony explained that over 400 new products were added and more than 200 removed from the CPI basket due to changed consumption patterns.
- The adjustment will use the average CPI from January to December 2024 as the new reference, instead of just December 2024.
- Technical partners, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, were consulted, and the base effect will no longer apply from January 2026.
