Inflation falls to lowest level in over two years
UK inflation fell by more than expected last month, driven largely by a drop in fuel prices.
Prices rose by 3.9% in the year to November, down from 4.6% in October.
Slowing price rises for food and household goods were also behind the drop.
But while inflation has fallen a long way from its peak in 2022, it is still almost double the Bank of England’s 2% target.
The Bank has put up interest rates 14 times since December 2021 to try to slow price rises, pushing up savings rates but also mortgage repayments.
Rates are currently at 5.25%, a 15-year high.
Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said that while UK inflation had eased again, “prices remain substantially above” what they were before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Among other things, the war caused global oil prices to rise sharply in 2022, pushing up fuel prices.
However, prices at the pumps have fallen back and are now at their lowest level for more than two years, according to the RAC motoring group.
A litre of unleaded costs about £1.43 on average, a price last seen at UK forecourts in October 2021.