Chain-linked from every annual inflation rate since 1961, the Nigerian price level has risen 13,473 times since independence. One 1960 naira is ₦13,473 of today’s money — and food and fuel have run far ahead of that.
That is the cumulative rise in the general price level between 1960 and 2026. It is an average across a whole basket: individual goods, especially bread and petrol, have risen by multiples of it.
Hyperinflation under military rule: the parallel exchange rate, fuel scarcity and a collapsed fiscal position compounded in a single year.
The only meaningful deflation in the record, recorded in the first full year of the civil war as demand collapsed and trade was blockaded.
Where a good’s multiple exceeds ×13,473, it has outrun the general price level — that gap is the felt cost of living the index alone will not show you.