UK consumer prices index inflation slows to 2.8% in February? ONS
Consumer prices in the UK cooled slightly in February, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday.
Consumer price index inflation stood at 2.8% on-year in February, decelerated from 3.0% in January and lower than the 2.9% FXStreet-cited consensus.
The UK consumer prices index including owner occupiers’ housing costs rose by 3.7% in the year to February, down from 3.9% in the year to January.
On a monthly basis, CPIH rose 0.4% on-year in February, lower than an FXStreet-cited consensus of 0.5%.
The inflation data spells some relief for UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who will deliver her spring statement at around 1230 GMT, during which she is expected to acknowledge she needs to go ‘further and faster to kickstart growth’, amid dour predictions about her cost-cutting measures and as she scrambles for savings to help balance the nation’s books without hiking taxes.
The ONS said: ‘The largest downward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates came from clothing, with a further large downward effect in CPIH from housing and household services.’
Core CPI. excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, rose by 3.5% in the year to February, slowed from 3.7% in the year to January and lower than an FXStreet-cited consensus of 3.6%.
While UK producer price index inflation had been originally scheduled to be released on Wednesday, last week Friday, the ONS said that it was pausing producer prices publications amid work to improve systems used to create the PPI index.
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