Nigeria inflation rises to 8.0 pct yr/yr in May

Nigeria's finmin, Okonjo-Iweala

Nigeria's consumer inflation rose to 8 percent in May from a year ago, closer to the central bank's upper limit, the statistics bureau said on Monday.
The increase came after Nigeria's consumer inflation rose to 7.9 percent the previous month, the statistics bureau said on Monday.
Nigeria's central bank has said it aims to keep inflation between 6 and 9 percent this year and has a longer term goal of reducing inflation to around 5 percent by the end of 2015.
Food inflation, which is the biggest contributor to the headline index, rose to 9.7 percent year-on-year in May, up from 9.4 percent in April.
"Prices were pushed higher as a result of higher prices in the bread and cereals, fish, dairy, fruits, and vegetable groups," the statistics office said.
Nigeria's new central bank governor said last week said that April's 7.9 percent inflation was a "good level" and that the bank will work to maintain it.
Consumer inflation in Africa's largest economy and top oil exporter has been rising month-on-month since January.
"We expect inflation to continue to rise in the coming months ... the risk is that we see a breach of 10 percent before the year-end," said Razia Khan, head of Africa research at Standard Chartered Bank, adding that a rise in pre-election spending poses a risk.