BREAKING: NBS Reaffirms Commitment to Data Transparency Amid Inflation Report Concerns

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reaffirmed its commitment to transparency and quality data publication, promising to continue to provide technical explanations to aid public understanding of statistical outcomes.

NBS, in a statement by its acting Director, Communications and Public Relations, Mr. Folorunso Alesanmi, clarified that the rebased Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measured the rate of change in prices of goods and commodities, remained intact and unchanged from the estimates earlier published.

In February, NBS, following the CPI rebasing from 2009 base year to 2024, put headline inflation at 24.48 per cent in January 2025. Inflation further declined to 23.18 per cent in February, while the month-on-month stood at 2.44 per cent.

The assurances came against the backdrop of an online media report, which raised concerns about data transparency and accuracy following a recent re-upload of the inflation report that excluded the historical series.

The historical spreadsheet, which was uploaded to the NBS website before it was removed, was given wrong interpretations by some stakeholders and users.

Alesanmi, while acknowledging concerns regarding the re-upload, clarified that the template erroneously uploaded was not the actual result, but more of a worksheet that had no impact on the final outcome.

He explained that the update was necessary due to the change in the base year for the CPI, making the old and new series not directly comparable.

Nonetheless, he said the historical data remained available in previous reports.

The NBS acting director said, “The rebased CPI adopts 2024 as the price reference period (base year), using a 12-month average of prices in 2024 rather than a single month.

“This re-referencing process ensures that the January 2025 index (and all the other months in 2025) can be compared to their corresponding preceding years to track year-on-year inflation trends accurately.

“The inflation figures released for December 2024 remain 34.80 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 2.44 per cent month-on-month (MoM) as published.

“The old CPI series ended in December 2024, while the new series begins from January 2025.

“Month-on-Month inflation is calculated by comparing the computed index of the current month with that of the preceding month.”

He explained, “As a result, the MoM inflation rate for the new series officially began in February 2025 at 2.04 per cent.

“The 10.7 per cent inflation rate reported for January 2025 was not a MoM figure.

“Instead, it was derived from the all-items index minus 100 (110.68 – 100), representing the rate of change in the average prices of goods and services in January 2025 compared to the average prices throughout the year 2024.”

Alesanmi emphasised that the rebased CPI included about 500 new products, an updated classification system (13 divisions instead of 12), as well as improved compilation techniques.

He said, “As a result, some figures in the first month (January 2025) may appear different from past trends. However, these adjustments are expected when transitioning to a new CPI methodology, especially after a long interval between rebasing exercises.”

Alesanmi added that going forward, the NBS will publish both the new and old series to ensure users had access to complete information.