Nigeria’s headline inflation rate fell in July for the first time in more than a year, dipping to 33.40 percent in annual terms, from 34.19 percent in June, data from the statistics agency showed on Thursday.
Analysts had said June’s reading could mark the peak in inflation as devaluation effects start to fade.
July’s slowdown will bring some relief to Nigerian citizens, who protested this month over cost-of-living pressures and governance issues in Africa’s most populous nation.
Price pressures have been stoked by President Bola Tinubu’s decision to remove a decades-old fuel subsidy, devalue the naira currency, and hike electricity tariffs. The reforms are aimed at lifting economic growth and shoring up public finances.
The last month that annual inflation fell was December 2022.
