ABUJA, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s headline inflation rate fell in July for the first time in well over a year, dipping to 33.40% in annual terms from 34.19% in June, data from the statistics agency showed on Thursday.

Analysts had said June’s reading could mark the peak in inflation as currency devaluation effects start to fade.

July’s slowdown will bring some relief to frustrated Nigerians, 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 but have sent inflation soaring, eroding people’s incomes.

The last month that annual inflation fell was December 2022.

The central bank has increased interest rates four times this year to try to get inflation under control, but after the last hike in July some analysts said that could be the final act in the bank’s hiking cycle.

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s next rate setting meeting is scheduled for late September.

A report by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to be the biggest contributor to inflation in July.

Food inflation eased to 39.53% from 40.87% in June.

(Additional reporting by Shamsuddin Mohd; Editing by Alexander Winning and Tomasz Janowski)