UK inflation smashes 40-year high

The UK’s consumer price inflation surged to a new high of 10.1% per annum in July, up from 9.4% in June, according to new estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The figure is rapidly drawing closer to the Bank of England’s expectations for October, when inflation is predicted to top 13.3%.

According to the ONS, the rise in food prices made the largest contribution to the growth in inflation.

“Supermarkets have had little choice but to pass on price increases from suppliers, themselves contending with unprecedented inflation in raw material and ingredient input costs… This has been particularly acute in labor and utility intensive categories like dairy, with reports of the price of a pint of milk having more than doubled in some stores since the start of the year,” Kien Tan, director of retail strategy at PwC, told CNBC.

Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, also grew to 6.2% from 5.8% in June.

The price rise has affected the UK’s real wages, which have plunged by an annual 3% in the April to June period, their sharpest decline on record, according to figures released by the ONS on Tuesday.

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