Soaring prices for energy and food have pushed UK inflation to the highest level since October 1981.
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 11.1% in the 12 months to October 2022, up from 10.1% in September 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS, said that over the past year “gas prices have climbed nearly 130%, while electricity has risen by around 66%”.
Despite the UK government’s Energy Price Guarantee limiting energy bill rises in October, gas and electricity prices made the largest upward contribution to the overall inflation figure.
However, the ONS estimated that without this support inflation in October would have been around 13.8%.
Increases across a range of food items including basics such as milk, cheese and eggs also pushed inflation higher.
Food price inflation climbed to 16.2% in the year to October, the fastest rate for 45 years.
Analysts believe that October’s inflation figure could be the peak but it is likely to remain very high for several months.
Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, quoted by BBC News, said that prices could start to slow down “if the government continues to freeze [energy] prices in some way”.
“There is growing evidence that the upward pressure on core inflation from global factors is now fading,” he said.
“The recent falls in global agricultural commodity prices suggest to us that food inflation will soon start to ease.”
