“Inflation is expected to have been lifted in December by higher fuel prices as well as sterling’s weakness increasingly feeding through to cause retailers, services companies and manufacturers to lift their prices,” said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at research company IHS Markit. Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline, said households should scrutinise their finances as inflation rises. Next has warned clothing prices could rise by about 5% in the coming months. Kantar said inflation returned with a 0.2% increase in like-for-like grocery prices for the 12-week period ending on 1 January compared with a year earlier. These are not the official inflation figures, but are based on 75,000 products Kantar compares year-on-year in the proportions purchased by shoppers.

Source: The Guardian January 16, 2017 00:01 UTC