Nigeria’s annual consumer price inflation accelerated for the seventh straight month in June, exceeding the central bank’s 6%-9% target band for the first time in 26 months, data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. Higher food prices and irregular fuel supply pushed up June’s inflation to 9.2% from 9.0% in May.

The annual food inflation (measured by the food sub-index, which includes farm produce and processed food) rose to a 10-month high of 10% last month from 9.8% in May.

The annual core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural products, edged up to a 28-month high of 8.4% from 8.3% in May, “with the highest pressures observed in the pressures observed in the Transportation, Education and Miscellaneous Good and Services divisions”, the NBS said.

Nigeria’s monthly inflation slowed to 0.9% in June from 1.1% in May, with core inflation decelerating to 0.8% from 1.2% and food inflation staying flat at 1.1%.

The average inflation for the 12-month period to end-June was 8.4%, with average food and core inflation at 9.5% and 7.0%, respectively.

In its latest monetary policy statement from May 19, Nigeria’s central bank noted that the drivers of inflation where to a large extend of transient nature and so outside the direct control of monetary policy. Thus, “the space for manoeuvre remains constrained, necessitating the intervention of fiscal and structural policies to stimulate output growth,” it said. The bank's next rate setting meeting is scheduled for July 20-21.