Written September 14, 2022 at 8:40
LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Britain’s inflation eased slightly in August to 9.9% year-on-year after hitting 10.1% in July, the highest level in 40 years, official statistics released on Wednesday showed.
Economists polled by Reuters on average expected an acceleration to 10.2%.
This slowdown is mainly due to the fall in the price of motor fuels, specifies the ONS, the Office for National Statistics.
Compared to July, the UK consumer price index rose by 0.5% in raw data, a slightly smaller rise than expected since the consensus put it at 0.6%.
Prices of automotive fuels and lubricants fell 6.8% month-on-month, their biggest drop since April 2020.
Britain still has the highest inflation of the major advanced countries and financial markets continue to expect a further hike by the Bank of England (BoE), which has postponed its monetary policy decision until September 22 due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Developments in interest rate futures thus show a 79% probability of a three-quarter point increase in the policy rate to 2.5% next week, which would be the highest level since 1989. if the pound crisis of September 1992 is excluded.
Statistics on producer prices and business sales prices, also released on Wednesday, are lower than expected.
Commodity and energy prices fell 1.2% in August from July, their first drop in two years, thanks to the fall in oil prices.
Business sales prices also fell slightly month-on-month. (Reporting by David Milliken, French version by Marc Angrand, editing by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)