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The UK inflation rate edged up in May to a fresh 40-year high, data on Wednesday showed.
Annual consumer price inflation hit 9.1%, ticking up from 9.0% in April. This was in line with market consensus, according to FXStreet.
It was the highest 12-month inflation rate in the National Statistic series, which began in January 1997, the Office for National Statistics said. Indicative modelled consumer price index inflation estimates suggest that it would last have been higher around 1982, ONS said.
‘Though still at historically high levels, the annual inflation rate was little changed in May. Continued steep food price rises and record high petrol prices were offset by clothing costs rising by less than this time last year and a drop in often fluctuating computer games prices,’ said Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS.
Month-on-month, prices rose 0.7%, far slower than the 2.5% notched for April.
Turning to factory prices, producer input prices rose by 22% in the year to May, accelerating from 21% in April to hit the highest rate since records began in 1985.
Output prices rose 16%, again accelerating from April's rise of 15%.
‘The price of goods leaving factories rose at their fastest rate in 45 years, driven by widespread food price rises, while the cost of raw materials leapt at their fastest rate on record,’ said ONS's Fitzner.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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