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Rate Rise Threat Grows As Inflation Surges To 10-year HighThe surge in price pressures last month is certain to inflame the Bank of England’s fears of inflation-busting wage demands in the impending spring pay round and can only heighten the risk of a February rate rise, City economists said. Smaller falls in the price of petrol at the pumps last month compared with those seen during November last year were the prime culprit behind yesterday’s sharp jump in inflation on the consumer price index (CPI). CPI inflation leapt to an annual rate of 2.7 per cent for last month, from October’s 2.4 per cent, lifting it to its highest since the measure was introduced in January 1997 and leaving it above the Bank’s 2 per cent target, for a seventh month in a row. Anxieties on the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that such strong price pressures will stoke excessive pay demands will be intensified by a matching jump in inflation on the retail price index (RPI), more commonly used as the main starting point in wage negotiations. On the RPI, annual inflation hit 3.9 per cent last month, up from 3.7 per cent in October to its highest rate since May 1998. The MPC is worried not only that such high rates of inflation will trigger a wage-price spiral but also that they will damage public confidence that the Bank will consistently hit its 2 per cent inflation target, in turn making this still harder to achieve as companies and individuals cease to see it as a reliable benchmark. Signs in yesterday’s data that disinflationary pressures in the high street, shown by consistent falls in the cost of some goods, may be fading, and that companies’ discipline in controlling their costs may be weakening as the impact of soaring energy bills eases off, will also sound alarm bells at the Bank, analysts argued. Yesterday’s disappointing figures revealed smaller falls last month in the prices of goods including DVDs than were seen at the same time last year. It also emerged that airlines cut their long-haul fares by less than in November last year. A further source of concern for the MPC may be that so-called “core” inflation — which excludes volatile prices for food, drink, toba Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationAmcor delivers handy package...Alternative Journalist’s Web Site Is Scrutinized for Writers? Strike News... G.M. and Toyota in a Close Race in ?07 Sales... Icahn Uses Ad in Seeking Seat on Motorola... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Rate Rise Threat Grows As Inflation Surges To 10-year High |
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