Money Central: the 10 items that have fallen in price the most this year

Soaring costs for food and fuel triggered the sharpest jump in inflation for almost six years today, lifting its annual pace of increase for last month to 3 per cent.

In much worse figures than the City expected, inflation on the consumer prices index shot still further above the Bank of England’s 2.0 per cent target, climbing by another half a percentage point from the 2.5 per cent rate recorded in March to its highest for a year.

The latest steep rise in the cost of living came after prices for consumers at the shops leapt by a hefty 0.8 per cent last month, driven upward by sharp increases in gas and electricity charges by utilities companies, as well as record increases in food bills at supermarkets.

City analysts had predicted a much more modest increase in the headline inflation rate on the consumer price index, to only 2.6 per cent.

The leap in inflation leaves it just a fraction away from the 3.1 per cent level that would force Mervyn King, the Bank’s Governor to write only his second explanatory letter to the Chancellor, as he first did in March 2007.

The Governor is required to write such a letter, detailing what the Bank will do to return inflation to 2 per cent, each time it strays more than 1 percentage point from this target.

The surge in inflation also deals a further heavy blow to hopes for a new cut in interest rates next month, which until yesterday’s figures also showing big increases in inflation at factory gates, had been seen as odds-on.

Mr King will unveil the Bank’s latest assessment of prospects for both inflation and growth in the economy tomorrow, in its quarterly Inflation Report, and is expected to deliver a hawkish message, dampening hopes for further cuts in base rates this year.

The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee held interest rates last month, when it would have already been informed of today’s figures, as it continues to face a sharp dilemma, wrestling with conflicting pressures from persistent and rising price pressures even as the economy falters.

Utilities bills were the biggest driving force behind today’s sharp rise in inflation, as the cost of both electricity and gas jumped by 2 per cent last month alone, accounting for two-fifths of the increase in the overall pace of price increases.

Households’ costs for gas, electricity and water have jumped by 5.4 per cent since April last year, and yesterday there were warnings from Centrica, British Gas’s parent company, of more pain to come.

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