LONDON (Reuters) – British annual consumer price inflation (CPI) was unchanged at 6.7% in September holding at August’s 18-month low, official data showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast CPI would edge down to 6.6%.
The Bank of England has been expected by financial markets to leave interest rates at 5.25% on Nov. 2, having kept them on hold in September following an unexpected drop in the August inflation rate the day before it announced its decision.
British consumer price inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1% in October 2022 after European energy prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding to pressures caused by supply chain difficulties and labour shortages following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its last set of forecasts in August, the BoE predicted inflation would stay above its 2% target until early 2025.
Wednesday’s data showed that core inflation – which excludes volatile food, energy, alcohol and tobacco prices and is sometimes seen as giving a better guide to underlying price trends – fell to 6.1% in September from August’s 6.2%. Economists had forecast a fall to 6.0%.
(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by William James)
