CAIRO - Egypt's annual urban consumer inflation rose to a slightly faster-than-expected 15% in September, its highest in almost four years, data from the country's statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Monday.

The inflation rate sped up from August's 14.6% year on year, according to CAPMAS data, to the highest level since November 2018, when it hit 15.7%.

Core inflation climbed to an annual 18.0% in September from 16.7% the prior month.

A Reuters poll of nine economists had expected inflation to come in at 14.7% and core inflation at 17.0%.

The pick-up in inflation was caused by a higher-than-forecast month-on-month increase in prices, which rose by 1.6% in September, pushed up mainly by food and tobacco prices, Naeem Brokerage said in a note.

Egypt's central bank, whose Monetary Policy Committee meets next on Nov. 3, targets a rate between 5% and 9%, but in June said it expected inflation to exceed the target in the fourth quarter before subsequently declining.

(Reporting by Mahmoud Salama; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Toby Chopra, Patrick Werr, Ed Osmond and Mark Porter)