Business
UK inflation rate unexpectedly rises to 10.4 pct in February: ONS
British consumer price inflation unexpectedly rose to 10.4 percent in February from January’s 10.1 percent, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that the annual CPI rate would drop to 9.9 percent in January, moving further away from October’s 41-year high of 11.1 percent but still eating into the spending power of workers whose pay is rising by less.
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The Bank of England is due to announce on Thursday whether it has raised interest rates for an 11th meeting in a row.
Core CPI — which excludes energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco and is watched closed by the BoE — rose to 6.2 percent from 5.8 percent in January, versus a forecast decline to 5.7 percent.
The annual inflation rate in the services sector, which most policymakers consider is a good measure of underlying price pressures in the economy, rose to 6.6 percent after standing at 6.0 percent in January.
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