![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0a060c09233aad7e8f45b8b28d04adb5.jpeg\")
The increase in air fares was the highest since last July (PA) \u00b7 John Walton <\/p>\nUK inflation lifted to its highest since December after a sharp jump in diesel and petrol prices caused by the conflict in the Middle East, according to official figures.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the Iran crisis was \u201cnot our war, but it is pushing up bills for families and businesses\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n
The rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation increased to 3.3% in March from 3% in February, the Office for National Statistics said.<\/p>\n
The increase was in line with predictions from economists.<\/p>\n
Higher motor fuel was the main driver of the acceleration in inflation, increasing by 8.7% month-on-month \u2013 the largest increase since June 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The ONS found that the average price of petrol rose by 8.6p per litre between February and March to 140.2p per litre. This marked the highest price since August 2024.<\/p>\n
Diesel prices meanwhile increased by 17.6p per litre in March to an average of 158.7p per litre, the highest price since November 2023.<\/p>\n
Office for National Statistics chief economist Grant Fitzner said: \u201cInflation climbed in March, largely due to increased fuel prices, which saw their largest increase for over three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAir fares were another upward driver this month, alongside rising food prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only significant offset came from clothing costs, where prices rose by less than this time last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The data revealed that the cost of air travel also increased significantly, with inflation of 14.5% compared with the same month last year.<\/p>\n
The rise in air fares, which analysts have partly linked to the early timing of the Easter holidays, was the highest since July last year.<\/p>\n
The increase in air fares was the highest since last July (PA) \u00b7 John Walton <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, food and non-alcoholic drink prices were up 3.7% year-on-year in March, accelerating from 3.3% inflation in the previous month.<\/p>\n
This included another acceleration in the price of sweets and chocolates, which were up 10.6% year-on-year.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, clothing and footwear had a downward pressure on inflation, as prices dipped 0.8% for the month.<\/p>\n
Sales and discounting activity pulled inflation in the category to its lowest level since March 2021.<\/p>\n
The rise in the overall rate of inflation drives the UK further away from the 2% inflation target set by the Government and the Bank of England.<\/p>\n
Ms Reeves said: \u201cWe\u2019re acting to protect people from unfair price rises if they occur to bring down food prices at the till, and are boosting long-term energy security \u2014 building a stronger, more secure economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
James Smith, developed markets economist at ING, said: \u201cThe latest rise in UK headline CPI tells us virtually nothing about the scale and duration of the inflation wave to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bank of England is still flying blind, with the conflict unresolved, but the limited amount of survey data available so far suggests little cause for alarm on inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said: \u201cAs inflation has come in in line with revised expectations, and given yesterday\u2019s labour market data which showed a fall in vacancies and further downward progress in wage growth, interest rates should hold at next week\u2019s MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there remains tremendous uncertainty over the outlook for energy supply and prices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK inflation lifted to its highest since December after a sharp jump in diesel and petrol prices caused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[8571,3442,1326,8814,8813,1312,1215,182,8568,5,6,7563],"class_list":["post-19257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-consumer-prices-index","tag-diesel-prices","tag-food-prices","tag-increase","tag-inflation-figures","tag-office-for-national-statistics","tag-petrol-prices","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-rate-of-inflation","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-war-in-the-middle-east"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116447147734151708","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}