Business

Inflation 'likely to have held steady in March' experts predict

A drop in food prices and air fares is likely to have kept inflation steady in March according to analysts
A drop in food prices and air fares is likely to have kept inflation steady in March according to analysts A drop in food prices and air fares is likely to have kept inflation steady in March according to analysts

INFLATION is expected to have held steady in March as a drop in food and fuel prices was offset by higher airfares around the earlier Easter holidays.

A consensus of economists forecast the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) to come in at 2.7 per cent for March, in line with February's reading and holding below the 3 per cent recorded in January.

Britons are believed to have benefited from slightly weaker food prices, which had surged on the back of the weaker pound, as well as a bigger month-on-month drop in fuel prices than a year earlier.

But air fares are likely to have helped offset the drop, having risen during the Easter bank holiday, which fell earlier in the calendar this year.

Martin Beck, lead UK economist at Oxford Economics, said: "Although we think that 2018 as a whole will see a steady decline in price pressures, March may have proved an exception to that.

"For one, base effects which helped push down inflation in February, won't be as favourable.

"Moreover, while average petrol prices at the pumps dropped 1.4 per cent between February and March this year, that was only a touch bigger than the 0.8 per cent drop seen between the same months in 2017."

But some experts - including George Brown, economist at Investec - are expecting inflation to fall even further.

Mr Brown highlighted BRC Shop Price Index data, which showed food prices dropping at their fastest rate in 18 months in March, which could have a larger impact on the inflation figure alongside fuel costs.

"Overall though, the risks to inflation are skewed to the downside," he said.

"We suspect that these factors will mean that we see another step-down in CPI inflation in March such that it falls to a one-year low of 2.5 per cent."

Slower growth from CPI could ease pressure on the Bank of England, which is widely expected to hike interest rates beyond 0.5 per cent in May.

Two of the nine Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members already voted to hike rates to 0.75 per cent last month, marking the first split vote since last November when rates were raised from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

Despite keeping rates on hold, the committee said that "ongoing tightening of monetary policy" would be needed to bring inflation back to the Bank's 2 per cent target.

It confirmed earlier comments from Governor Mark Carney who said rates would need to rise "somewhat earlier and by a somewhat greater degree" to bring CPI back on track.

Experts widely believe rates will rise in May and possibly again in November, with another due in 2019, which would see rates climb to 1.25 per cent next yea