Britain’s CPI increases by 2.2 percent last months

(MENAFN) On Wednesday, official data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that Britain’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI) increased by 2.2 percent in the 12 months leading up to August 2024. This figure remained unchanged from the previous month, indicating that inflation has held steady despite various price fluctuations. Notably, the CPI continues to exceed the central bank's target of 2 percent.

Grant Fitzner, the chief economist at the ONS, explained that the stability in inflation was the result of different price movements balancing each other out. A significant contributor to the CPI rise was a 22.2 percent increase in air fares between July and August. This rise, which follows a decline in fares during the same period last year, represents the second largest monthly increase since the ONS began collecting such data in 2001.

Conversely, the main downward pressures on inflation came from motor fuels, restaurants, and hotels, which helped to moderate the overall CPI increase. Core CPI, which excludes energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco, saw a rise of 3.6 percent over the past year, up from 3.3 percent in July. Additionally, the annual rate for CPI services increased from 5.2 percent in July to 5.6 percent in August.

These inflation figures are of particular interest to the Bank of England, which is scheduled to make its next interest rate decision on Thursday. The bank closely monitors both core CPI and CPI services rates as part of its broader assessment of economic conditions and inflationary pressures.

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