This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29218855
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| UK inflation rate falls to 1.5% | UK inflation rate falls to 1.5% |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The annual rate of UK inflation fell in August as the cost of petrol, food and non-alcoholic drinks declined. | |
| Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% from 1.6% in August, the Office for National Statistics said. | |
| It means the Bank of England remains under little pressure to raise interest rates in order to keep CPI inflation at or below its target rate of 2%. | It means the Bank of England remains under little pressure to raise interest rates in order to keep CPI inflation at or below its target rate of 2%. |
| Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation also saw a reduction, to 2.4%, from 2.5% the previous month. | |
| Prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks fell by 1.1%, marking their steepest fall for more than a decade. | |
| An ONS spokesman said competition between rival supermarket chains was a factor. Food prices had also been pushed up by cold weather a year earlier. | |
| Bucking the downward trend, clothing, transport services and alcohol all rose in price faster than the headline inflation rate. | |
| And core inflation, which strips out food, alcohol, tobacco and energy, notched up a 1.9% rate rise. | |
| "For all the chatter, guesswork and prophecy around possible rate hikes in the UK, inflation is currently sat at a five-year low," said Jeremy Cook, chief economist at currency exchange company World First. | |
| "Of course, the headline figure does not tell the full story. Core prices surprised higher by 1.9% in August; they were unaffected by the slips in oil prices or the 1.1% decline in food and booze through the past 12 months." | |
| Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "August's muted consumer price inflation is welcome news for consumers' purchasing power as they currently continue to be hampered by very low earnings growth. | |
| "Indeed, even consumer price inflation of 1.5% in August is still more than double current underlying earnings growth." |