UK annual inflation hit a 30-year high of 7% in March

Consumers shop at a London supermarket (Credit: REUTERS / Kevin Coombs)

By David Milligan and William Schomberg

LONDON (Reuters) – British consumer inflation hit a three-decade high in March, intensifying pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his finance minister Rishi Sunak to cut the cost of living.

Annual inflation rose to 7.0% in March from 6.2% in February, the highest since March 1992 and higher than most economists in a Reuters poll, official data showed on Wednesday.

+ Annual inflation in the United States reaches 8.5% and is the highest in 41 years

On a monthly basis, the 1.1% increase was the highest since the start of the National Statistics Agency’s historic series in 1988.

Rising prices ranged from fuel to food and furniture.

According to British budget experts, consumers have been facing the greatest cost of living pressure since the records began in the 1950s, and high inflation is bad news for the government.

Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine has further boosted energy prices, with the Office for Budget last month predicting that inflation will hit a 40 – year high of 7.7% in the last quarter of 2022.

Financial markets predict that the British central bank will raise interest rates from 0.75% to 1% on May 5 and by 2% -2.25% by the end of 2022.