LONDON (Reuters) – British consumer price inflation unexpectedly rose to 10.4% in February from January’s 10.1%, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that the annual CPI rate would drop to 9.9% in January, moving further away from October’s 41-year high of 11.1% but still eating into the spending power of workers whose pay is rising by less.
The Bank of England is due to announce on Thursday whether it has raised interest rates for an 11th meeting in a row.
Core CPI – which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco and is watched closed by the BoE – rose to 6.2% from 5.8% in January, versus a forecast decline to 5.7%.
The annual inflation rate in the services sector, which most policymakers consider is a good measure of underlying price pressures in the economy, rose to 6.6% after standing at 6.0% in January.
(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by William James)
