LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s annual rate of consumer price inflation inched up to 10.1% in September, returning to a 40-year high hit in July, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the inflation rate would rise to 10.0% from 9.9% in August.
The ONS said the main driver of inflation in September was rising food prices.
Britain has been hit hard by the surge in European natural gas prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has added to post-COVID supply-chain bottlenecks and labour shortages, creating an intense squeeze on living standards.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce and Ana Nicolaci da Costa; editing by William James and Kate Holton)
