UK Inflation Rises To 2.9%

(RTTNews) - UK consumer price inflation accelerated in July largely due to higher household energy prices, official data showed Wednesday.

The consumer price index posted an annual growth of 2.9 percent in July, faster than the 2.6 percent rise in June, the Office for National Statistics said. This was the highest in four months and matched economists' expectations.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices moved up 0.3 percent, following a 0.1 percent gain.

Core inflation, which excludes prices of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, remained unchanged at 2.6 percent in July.

The CPI goods annual rate rose to 2.2 percent from 1.7 percent and services inflation eased to 3.4 percent from 3.6 percent.

Another data from ONS showed that factory gate inflation softened to 3.1 percent in July from 3.5 percent in June. Likewise, input price inflation eased sharply to 4.9 percent from 7.4 percent in the previous month.

Further, data showed that monthly output prices rose 0.2 percent in July, up from a revised fall of 0.1 percent in June. At the same time, input prices fell 1.7 percent compared to a 1.9 percent decline in the prior month.