UK inflation rises to 41-year high at 11.1%

A man stands in front of the Bank of England at the financial district in London. Photo / AP

Britain’s inflation rate rose to a 41-year high in October, fuelling demands for the British government to do more to ease the nation’s cost-of-living crisis when it releases new tax and spending plans on Thursday.

Consumer prices rose 11.1 per cent in the 12 months through October, compared with 10.1 per cent in September, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. The October figure exceeded economists’ expectations of 10.7 per cent.

Higher prices for food and energy drove October’s inflation rate to the highest since October 1981, the ONS said.

The new data comes a day before Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt is scheduled to unveil a new budget amid growing calls for higher wages, increased benefits and more spending on health and education as raging inflation erodes the spending power of people across the UK.

Those demands are complicating Hunt’s efforts to close an estimated £50 billion budget shortfall and restore the UK government’s financial credibility after former prime minister Liz Truss’s disastrous economic policies undermined investor confidence and sparked turmoil on financial markets.

The US inflation rate fell to 7.7 per cent in October from 8.2 per cent in September.