UK inflation remains over 10% as food prices rise
The price of food in the U.K. rose at the fastest pace in 45 years last month, keeping inflation above 10% for a seventh straight month amid a cost-of-living crisis that has fueled a wave of strikes by government workers
LONDON (AP) — The price of food in the U.K. rose at the fastest pace in 45 years last month in, keeping inflation above 10% for a seventh straight month amid a cost-of-living crisis that has fueled a wave of strikes by government workers.
Food prices jumped 19.2% in the 12 months through February, the biggest increase since August 1977, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.
Overall, consumer price inflation eased to 10.1%, from 10.4% the previous month, as the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel fell. The March figure was above the 9.8% rate economists had forecast.
“The heat has been turned down on the bubbling cauldron of prices, but inflation is still scalding and interest rates look set to be pushed up again to try and cool it down rapidly,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown in London.
