2019.05.2205:20:00UTC+00UK Inflation Accelerates In April

UK consumer price inflation accelerated in April, while output price inflation eased slightly, figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed Wednesday.

Consumer price inflation rose to 2.1 percent in April from 1.9 percent in March. Nonetheless, this was slightly slower than the forecast of 2.2 percent.

Month-on-month, consumer prices gained 0.6 percent versus expected rate of 0.7 percent.

The consumer prices index including owner occupiers' housing costs advanced 2 percent annually versus 1.8 percent in March.

At the same time, retail price inflation advanced to 3 percent from 2.4 percent a month ago.

Another report from ONS showed that output price inflation slowed slightly to 2.1 percent in April from 2.2 percent in March.

On a monthly basis, output prices climbed 0.3 percent following a 0.1 percent rise in the previous month.

Input price inflation accelerated to 3.8 percent from 3.2 percent in March. On a monthly basis, input prices climbed 1.1 percent, in contrast to a 0.8 percent drop a month ago.

In a separate communiqu?, the ONS said house prices increased 1.4 percent annually in March following a 1 percent rise in February.

However, over the past three years, there has been a general slowdown in UK house price growth, driven mainly by a slowdown in the south and east of England, the ONS reported.