London, Europe Brief News – UK inflation hit 9.1% year-on-year in May as soaring food and energy prices continue to deepen the country’s cost-of-living crisis.
The 9.1% rise in the consumer price index, released Wednesday, was in line with expectations from economists in a Reuters poll and slightly higher than the 9% increase recorded in April.
Consumer prices rose by 0.7% month-on-month in May, slightly above expectations for a 0.6% rise but well short of the 2.5% monthly increase in April, indicating that inflation is slowing somewhat.
In its communications alongside the figures on Wednesday, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics said its estimates suggested that inflation “would last have been higher around 1982, where estimates range from nearly 11% in January down to approximately 6.5% in December.”
The largest upward contributions to the inflation rate came from housing and household services, primarily electricity, gas and other fuels, along with transport (mostly motor fuel and second-hand cars).
The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) came in at 7.9% in the 12 months to May, up from 7.8% in April.
“Rising prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, compared with falls a year ago, resulted in the largest upward contribution to the change in both the CPIH and CPI 12-month inflation rates between April and May 2022 (0.17 percentage points for CPIH),” the ONS said in its report.
The Bank of England last week implemented a fifth consecutive hike to interest rates, though stopped short of the aggressive hikes seen in the U.S. and Switzerland, as it looks to tame inflation without compounding the current economic slowdown.
