Annual Inflation in UK in July Accelerated to 10.1% - ONS

Earlier, the Bank of England announced that it had increased the key rate at the maximum pace since 1995 by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75%, and upgraded the inflation forecast for 2022 from 10.25% to 13%.

The annual inflation in the UK in July accelerated to 10.1% from 9.4% a month earlier, marking a record high, since 1982, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday.

"The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 10.1% in the 12 months to July 2022, up from 9.4% in June," the ONS said in a statement.

Economists had expected a reading of 9.8%.

The core inflation gauge rose to 6.2% YoY last month versus 5.8% booked in May.

Earlier, the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) said that the rate of inflation will exceed the rate of wage growth for Britons by nearly 8% in the fourth quarter of 2022, the largest gap in 100 years. A larger difference between the inflation rate and the rate of income growth was observed only in 1922 and was 13.3%, which was due to the difficult economic situation after World War I, the TUC added.

Since 2021, energy and electricity prices in Europe have been rising rapidly, following a global trend. After Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 and Brussels imposed several sanctions packages against Moscow, the energy situation deteriorated considerably.

In the UK, rising costs of living hit millions of households.

Earlier this month, the Bank of England announced that it had increased the key rate at the maximum pace since 1995 by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75%, and upgraded the inflation forecast for 2022 from 10.25% to 13%.