Britain’s inflation rate rose to a 41-year high last month, fueling demands for the government to do more to ease the nation’s cost-of-living crisis when it releases new tax and spending plans today.
Consumer prices rose 11.1 percent in the 12 months through last month, compared with 10.1 percent in September, the British Office for National Statistics said yesterday.
Last month’s figure exceeded economists expectations of 10.7 percent.
Higher prices for food and fuel drove the inflation rate to the highest since October 1981, the office said.
The new data arrived a day before British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is scheduled to unveil a new budget amid growing calls for higher wages, increased benefits, and more spending on healthcare and education as inflation erodes the spending power of people across the UK.
Those demands are complicating Hunt’s efforts to close an estimated ￡50 billion (US$59.34 billion) budget shortfall.
Separately, the number of company insolvencies in England and Wales rose by 38 percent last month.
Figures from the British Insolvency Service showed that 1,948 companies tumbled into insolvency last month, compared with 1,410 in the same month last year.
It also represented a significant increase from the 1,684 insolvencies recorded in September.
Experts said a buildup of debt following the COVID-19 pandemic and weak consumer demand have contributed to the increase in business failures.
“A series of economic issues, the end of temporary insolvency legislation, and a lack of a post-COVID bounce have hit all parts of the economy and the supply chain hard,” said Nick Fisher, vice president of insolvency and restructuring trade body R3.
Additional reporting by AFP
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