United Kingdom inflation rises to a higher-than-expected 0.5%

Motor fuel prices also rose by more than a year ago, with petrol and diesel prices rising by 2.3 pence (3 United States cents) and 2.6 pence per litre respectively between May and June 2016, the ONS said.

It said: “Year on year, energy prices, imported items and related products continue to be persistent drivers of the Core sub-index”.

On Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Nigeria rose to 16.5 percent in May.

Analysts expect the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to try and balance interest rates and economic growth at its next policy meeting on July 26. In addition, the Rural index increased by roughly 1.6% in June, 90 basis points lower from 2.5% in May.

According to the data, food prices rose 15.3 percent in June from a year earlier, compared with 14.9 percent in May.

Education and communication prices increased 1.5 percent from May to June as phone and internet rates increased.

“We see inflation averaging in the mid 20 percent by year-end, mainly because of the foreign exchange rates”, she was quoted as saying. It has held steady at 0.3% in every other month.

Month-on-month, CPI was up 0.2%, the same rate as last month, as forecast.

“With the pound down more than 10% against the United States dollar since Brexit, investors need to prepare themselves for inflation to climb rapidly, and we could see CPI move up sharply over the coming months as the impact of weak sterling feeds through into the real economy”, he said. But cheaper furniture and accommodation helped blunt the increase, the ONS said.

Our data shows that the vast majority of the 770 savings accounts now on the market – 593 of them, in fact – can beat or match inflation, and of these 525 (88 no notice accounts, 52 notice deals, 209 fixed rate bonds and 176 cash ISAs) are without restrictive criteria and open to everyone.

Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said the uptick in CPI was “likely to be the start of a rising trend in prices as costs march higher in response to the recent slump in sterling”.

Britain had the largest downward revision in forecasted growth of any advanced economy, 0.2 per cent lower in 2016 and one per cent lower in 2017.