2022.03.2308:05:00UTC+00UK Inflation Near 30-Year High

UK consumer price inflation rose further in February to the highest since 1992, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday.

Consumer price inflation rose to 6.2 percent in February from 5.5 percent in January. The rate was forecast to rise moderately to 5.9 percent.

This was the highest inflation rate in the National Statistic series which began in January 1997, and the highest rate in the historic modeled series since March 1992, when it stood at 7.1 percent.

Core inflation that excludes energy, food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, advanced to 5.2 percent from 4.4 percent in the previous month.

Month-on-month, the consumer price index rose 0.8 percent, in contrast to the 0.1 percent fall in January. Monthly inflation was the largest monthly rate between January and February since 2009.

Another report from the ONS showed that output price inflation increased to 10.1 percent, in line with expectations, from 9.9 percent in January. This was the highest since September 2008.

On a monthly basis, output price inflation came in at 0.8 percent versus 1.2 percent in January. The expected rate was 0.9 percent.

Input price inflation advanced to 14.7 percent in February from 14.2 percent a month ago. Economists had forecast the rate to slow to 13.9 percent.

Month-on-month, input price growth eased slightly to 1.4 percent from 1.5 percent but remained above the economists' forecast of 1.2 percent.