UK inflation has risen by 6.2 percent in fastest rise for 30 years with worse fears to come.
Rising energy, goods and food prices helped push inflation to 6.2 percent in the 12 months to February, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures revealed yesterday.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, considers increasing the threshold to begin paying national insurance (NI).
But Labour, branding him the “high-tax Chancellor”, has joined some Tory MPs in urging Mr Sunak to scrap the 1.25 percentage point hike to NI, which will hit next month just as energy bills soar when the price cap increases.
Fuel prices also hit new record highs, with figures from data firm Experian Catalist suggesting the average cost of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts on Tuesday was £1.67, with diesel at £1.79.
Since December last year, prices have been rising at their fastest rate since the 1990s. Inflation is expected to accelerate in April when the energy price cap is lifted.
This will push up the average household fuel bill up by £693 a year in England, Scotland and Wales, while a planned rise in National Insurance will also put pressure on household budgets.
Price hike
Chief Economist at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Grant Fitzner, said prices had risen for a wide range of goods and services, from food to toys and games.
“Clothing and footwear saw a return to traditional February price rises after last year’s falls when many shops were closed. Furniture and flooring also contributed to the rise in inflation as prices started to recover following New Year sales,” he added.
Rachel Winter, Associate Investment Director at Killik & Co, said, “inflation continues to suffocate economic growth as we plunge deeper into a cost-of-living crisis, grappling with a triple whammy of higher petrol prices, household bills, and food prices.”
“In a bid to tame soaring prices and stabilise the market, the Bank of England raised interest rates for the third time in a row last week.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addsion, during the 105th Monetary Policy Committee interaction with the media on Monday had noted that the global economy had entered a period of profound uncertainty and fragility.
He said the Russia-Ukraine war had introduced new uncertainties which had complicated the outlook and aggravated the COVID-related supply bottlenecks, elevated inflation expectations, and triggered higher crude oil prices, compounding the already high global inflationary pressures.
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