{"id":41134,"date":"2026-05-20T06:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/41134\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T06:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:28:22","slug":"uk-inflation-falls-to-2-8-but-experts-warn-far-higher-price-rises-on-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/41134\/","title":{"rendered":"UK inflation falls to 2.8% \u2013 but experts warn far higher price rises on the way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inflation<\/a> fell for the first time this year in April, official statistics show \u2013 but economists warn this is merely the calm before the storm.<\/p>\n

The Office for National Statistics<\/a> reported on Wednesday morning that annual consumer price rises fell from 3.3 per cent in March to 2.8 per cent in April.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s largely because government measures to lower energy costs<\/a> kicked in, helping lower household bills, if only temporarily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In response to fresh inflation data from the ONS, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: \u201cThe war in Iran is not our war but one we will need to respond to, and the decisions I took in the Budget last year have kept inflation down as we deal with global instability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the right economic plan, and to change course now would risk our economic stability and leave working people worse off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already taken \u00a3117 off energy bills, frozen rail fares, and lifted the two-child limit, and over today and tomorrow I\u2019ll set out the next phase of how we will support UK households.\u201d<\/p>\n

But economists fear the drop in inflation may be short-lived. Suren Thiru, chief economist at chartered accountants institute the ICAEW, said: \u201cApril\u2019s slowdown is a final interlude before the inflation storm sparked by the Iran<\/a> war<\/a> hits as the Ofgem energy price cap reduction, aided by the chancellor\u2019s cut to green levies, temporarily lowered the headline rate.<\/p>\n

\"Chancellor Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing inflation pressure (Getty Images) <\/p>\n

\u201cThis decline is probably the last inflation fall for this year as surging fuel and food prices will probably haul it close to 4 per cent this summer, while any escalation of the conflict in Iran opens the door to CPI hitting 5 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said: \u201cThe problem with today\u2019s inflation data is that it is backwards looking and households struggling to stretch their budgets to fit the rest of the year are hyper aware that the picture painted by April\u2019s numbers is a rose-tinted anomaly. Whilst motorists have already experienced a hefty rise in the price they\u2019ve been paying at the pump, the true impact of the energy price shock created by the Iran war will take a few months to really work its way through the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rising prices are the top financial concern for UK households, recent surveys show.<\/p>\n

S&P Global\u2019s consumer sentiment index figure dropped to 42.1 in May, from 42.3 in April, the lowest level since July 2023 when inflation in the UK was soaring as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the UK unemployment rate rose to 5 per cent in the three months to March from 4.9 per cent. That could also be a sign of further job cuts to come as employers look to cut costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inflation fell for the first time this year in April, official statistics show \u2013 but economists warn this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[653,5053,8570,24,1312,182,5,6],"class_list":["post-41134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-energy-bills","tag-energy-costs","tag-inflation-data","tag-iran","tag-office-for-national-statistics","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116605491807682996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41134","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=41134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}