Falling fuel prices are expected to have helped UK inflation ease back again last month as Wednesday’s official figures are set to offer further signs that the peak of the cost of living crisis has passed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is set to show the rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation falling to 10.5% last month from 10.7% in November, according to most economists.
It is thought that sharp drops in the prices at petrol pumps is behind the expected decline, which would mark the second month in a row that the rate of inflation has dropped back. CPI has eased since the eye-watering 41-year high of 11.1% seen in October, when soaring energy bills pushed up the cost of living.
Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics is pencilling in an even greater fall in CPI for December, to 10.3% as he said the figures will “provide more evidence that price rises are slowing”. He added that there may be some relief in store for households, who have faced sky-high bills for their weekly shop, saying that the report should “bring signs that the surge in food prices is petering out”.
