The headline rate of inflation surged beyond the Bank of England's target of 2 per cent last month, stoked by higher domestic energy bills.

The Office for National Statistics said the consumer price index rose by an annual rate of 2.2 per cent in May, the fastest rate of growth since October 2005. The figure was slightly ahead of City expectations of an increase to 2.1 per cent.

The reading, the first since November to come in above the Bank's target, will bolster expectations that the next move in interest rates will be a hike.

However, a benign reading for core inflation - which strips out volatile factors such as energy costs - would allow the Bank to maintain its "wait and see" position on the cost of borrowing in the short term, economists said.

The Bank has held interest rates at 4.5 per cent since August.

The headline figure was also in line with the Bank's own forecasts. In its quarterly Inflation Report last month, the Bank's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee said CPI inflation was likely to rise above target in the near-term as a result of higher energy and import costs.

John Butler, the HSBC economist, said: "Headline inflation has risen as the MPC had forewarned but still there is very little evidence of second round effects ... To date cost shocks have been treated as a relative rather than general inflation shock.

"That was illustrated again today: energy inflation rose but non-energy inflation eased and goods deflation slowed but service sector inflation cooled."

The statistics office said the largest inflationary pressure came from gas and electricity bills, which continued to increase more rapidly than a year ago, reflecting recent tariff increases from major suppliers.

According to Dominic Walley, managing economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research, household fuel bills climbed 9 per cent in the year to May.

The figures follow recent signs that inflation is looming large in the thoughts of central bankers around the world. In a speech yesterday, Mervyn King, the Bank's governor, suggested that global interest rates may have been held too low for too long.

Mr King said that after a run of strong growth recent market volatility reflected "the real risks which face us as we approach a somewhat bumpier stretch of road".

And in a speech today Gordon Brown insisted today the Treasury would "be resolute in our anti inflation discipline ... even as we cope with a doubling of oil prices and the rises in utility prices".

Talking to the Islamic Finance and Trade Conference in London the Chancellor said: "Public sector settlements are this year averaging 2.25 per cent, in the next year and future years public sector pay settlements should be founded on our inflation target of 2 per cent."

For Mr Brown's full speech, click here.

David Page of Investec Securities said: "Governor King sounded hawkish to us overnight and the Chancellor supported that assessment this morning."

According to the ONS, the core CPI annual rate, which excludes energy, food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco costs, rose by only 1.1 per cent year-on-year in May, against 1.3 per cent in April and expectations of a 1.2 per cent increase.

The fall in the core CPI to its lowest since October 2004’s 0.9 per cent may ease some of the concerns generated by the rise in the headline rate.

On a month-on-month basis, the core CPI rate was up 0.1 per cent from April.

The wider RPI measure of inflation, which is used in pensions payments, rose by 3 per cent year-on-year, against a 2.6 per cent rise the previous month and expectations of a rise of 2.7 per cent. This is the highest annual rate since April last year, when it was 3.2 per cent.

Howard Archer, the Global Insight economist, said: "Despite headline consumer price inflation rising to a seven-month high and moving above the Bank of England's target, the underlying data was not too bad.

"Headline inflation in the second quarter may even be marginally less than the 2.27 per cent expected by the Bank of England in its May Inflation Report, so we see little in this data to hurry the MPC into an early hiking of interest rates."

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