Skyscrapers in the Canary Wharf financial, business and shopping district in London, UK.
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LONDON — U.K. inflation came in at 6.7% in September, slightly ahead of expectations and unchanged from the previous month.
On a monthly basis, the headline consumer price index increased by 0.5%, in line with expectations. Economists polled by Reuters had projected an annual rate of 6.6% and a monthly climb of 0.5%.
The largest downward contributions came from food and non-alcoholic beverages, whose prices fell month-on-month for the first time since September 2021, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Rising fuel prices made the largest upward contribution to the headline rate.
Core CPI — which excludes volatile food, energy, alcohol and tobacco prices — came in at 6.1% year-on-year, down from 6.2% in August, but slightly above a consensus projection of 6%.
For August, the U.K. consumer price index surprised with a dip to 6.7%, below expectations, which sparked the Bank of England to end a run of 14 straight interest rate hikes.
The bank had been hiking rates consistently since December 2021 in a bid to rein in inflation, taking its main policy rate from 0.1% to a 15-year high of 5.25% in August.
The market was pricing around a 77% chance that the Bank holds rates steady again at its next meeting on November 2nd.
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