Inflation in the United Kingdom dropped below 10% for the first time in eight months in April as energy prices declined and the effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine faded from the yearly consumer price index.
Headline consumer price inflation came in at 8.7% in April, the Office for National Statistics reported on Wednesday, down from 10.1% in March but higher than the 8.2% predicted by a Reuters poll.
According to the ONS, “electricity and gas prices contributed 1.42 percentage points to the fall in annual inflation in April as last April’s rise dropped out of the annual comparison, but this component still contributed 1.01 percentage points to annual inflation.”
“Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices continued to rise in April and contributed to high annual inflation, however, the annual inflation rate of food and non-alcoholic beverages eased, from 19.2% in the year to March 2023, to 19.1% in the year to April 2023,” said the report.
The ONS noted that the annual inflation rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages was still the second-highest seen in more than 45 years, according to its indicative modeled projections.
