UK consumer prices across all headings rose to 7.9% in May from a yr earlier, the OECD said, up barely from 7.8% in April.
Mike Kemp | in photos | Getty Images
LONDON – The UK is the only country in a bunch of seven wealthy countries where inflation is still rising, in accordance with data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Paris-based organization said on Tuesday that year-on-year inflation in the G7 fell to 4.6% in May, from 5.4% in April, reaching its lowest level since September 2021.
A downward trend was observed in most advanced economies in May, with annual inflation declining in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Nevertheless, it turned out that Great Britain is an outlier.
UK consumer prices across all headings rose to 7.9% in May from a yr earlier, the OECD said, up barely from 7.8% in April.
It comes as many major central banks begin to think about ending their aggressive rate hikes once prices come down, whilst inflation stays elevated.
Last month, the Bank of England raised rates of interest by 50 basis points to five%, a much bigger increase than many expected. BOE’s thirteenth consecutive rate hike pushed the base rate to its highest level since 2008.
The move, which exacerbated fears of a mortgage crash, marked a divergence with other major central banks in a position to slow or halt rate of interest hikes.
Yr-on-year inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, slowed markedly to six.5% in May, from 7.4% in April. This implies OECD headline inflation is now at its lowest level since December 2021.
In line with the OECD, between April and May inflation fell in all countries under remark except the Netherlands, Norway and the UK
The group said that across OECD countries, inflation rates ranged from lower than 3% in Costa Rica, Greece and Denmark to over 20% in Hungary and Turkey.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and food prices, fell at a much slower pace across the 33 OECD countries, but continued the recent trend. In May it reached 6.9%, compared with 7.1% in April.
Meanwhile, energy inflation fell to -5.1% in May compared with the previous yr, from 0.7% in April.