- Imo overtook Bauchi as the state with the highest inflation in January 2025
- Imo’s ascendance to the top spot follows the rebasing of the Consumer Price Index
- The rebased CPI data took cognisance of new household consumption data, a broader variety of goods and services, and incorporated more up-to-date price data
Following the rebasing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Imo State has emerged as the state with the highest inflation in January 2025.
This marks a shift from states’ inflation ranking as Imo overtook Bauchi, which held the top spot for seven consecutive months.
The shift follows the updated CPI methodology as the NBS adjusted the base year from 2009 to 2024, revising the weighting structure, and expanding the consumer basket to reflect household spending patterns better.
Recall that with the rebasing of the CPI, the NBS announced that Nigeria’s headline inflation dropped to 24.48 per cent in January 2025 from 34.80 per cent in December 2024, mostly driven by food, beverages, clothing, and footwear items.
It also said food inflation was 26.08 per cent year-on-year for January 2025, a decrease from the 39.84 per cent recorded in December 2024.
Urban inflation stood at 26.09 per cent, while rural inflation stood at 22.15 per cent in January 2025.
Imo’s ascendance to the top spot
With the revised CPI data, Imo leads other states with an inflation rate of 17.77 per cent in January 2025.
Before the rebasing, the state occupied the 35th spot among states regarding living cost and all-time inflation rate.
Imo’s food inflation stood at 16.80 per cent in January, according to the latest data from the NBS, indicating the steep cost of food items in the state.
The new ranking sees Imo dethrone Bauchi, which held the top spot since May 2024 after overtaking Kogi State.
Bauchi moved 16 places from the first to the 17th spot of states with the highest inflation following the revised methodology.
The all-item inflation rate in Bauchi dropped from 44.06 per cent in December 2024 to 10.06 per cent, while food inflation moved from 39.37 per cent to 12.79 per cent.
How CPI changed the situation
The rebased CPI data took cognisance of new household consumption data and a broader variety of goods and services and incorporated more up-to-date price data.
Unlike the previous methodology which heavily weighted food inflation, contributing to Bauchi’s seven months’ stay at the top of the rankings, the rebasing redistributed weights across sectors.
The rebasing reduced the emphasis on food while incorporating housing, utilities, and services, which are responsible for the current price increases in urbanised states like Imo.
The rising housing and transportation costs, as well as higher prices for essential goods and services, influenced Imo’s new ranking.
The old CPI methodology had food accounting for over 50 per cent of the CPI calculation, but with the revised structure, the influence of food prices has been reduced to 40 per cent.
Also, the updated CPI includes more product varieties, increasing from 740 to 934 items, and now tracks expenditure on services more comprehensively.
Bauchi, Kebbi, Sokoto, 7 other states with high inflation in October 2024
Meanwhile, TheRadar earlier reported that in October 2024, Nigeria’s inflation rate stood at 33.88 per cent, a 1.18 per cent month-on-month increase from the 32.70 per cent recorded in September 2024, according to the Consumer Product Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, November 15.
Though the surge in core and food inflation rates was felt across the country, data from the CPI report of the NBS showed that some states were hit the hardest in October 2024, including Bauchi, Kebbi, and Sokoto.
