Did UK inflation stabilise in May?
After surging in April, UK inflation is expected to stabilise over the next few months — albeit remaining at historic levels — before reaching new heights later this year.
Economists polled by Reuters expect UK consumer price growth to have hit 9.1 per cent on an annual basis in May. That figure would represent little change from the 40-year high of 9 per cent reached in April, when a jump in the country’s energy price-cap bill led to a sharp rise from 7 per cent in the previous month.
“We are expecting fewer fireworks in the May CPI release,” said Ellie Henderson, economist at Investec. She forecast the headline consumer price index rate to remain at 9 per cent in May, but expects a combination of firmer food costs, higher petrol prices and another steep uptick in the energy price cap in October to push inflation into double figures in the second half of the year.