Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
(Alliance News) - The UK's annual inflation figure raced to just shy of a 30-year high in January, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday.
The UK's yearly inflation rate accelerated to 5.5% in January from 5.4% in December. The figure topped market estimates cited by FXStreet, which had forecast inflation to remain steady in January.
January's figure was the hottest since the current series began in 1997. It is the chunkiest inflation figure since a historic series registered 7.1% in March 1992.
Excluding food, energy, alcohol and tobacco, annual core inflation accelerated to 4.4% in January from 4.2% in December.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged down 0.1% in January, following a 0.5% increase in December. It was the first time since January 2021 that consumer prices declined monthly. Excluding July, when they were unchanged from June, prices have risen every month since January 2021.
The monthly decline for January 2022 still was less than market forecasts of a 0.4% fall.
At a producer price level, inflationary pressures accelerated in January.
Producer prices climbed 9.9% annually in January, following a 9.3% increase in December. January's figure topped market consensus of 9.1%.
Monthly, producer prices rose 1.2% in January, following growth of 0.3% in December. A lesser hike of 0.6% was expected for January, however.
Inflation has increased concern about spiralling living costs in the UK. On Monday, figures from AA showed UK petrol prices surpassed 148p for the first time.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.