British inflation unexpectedly accelerated last month, despite the Bank of England’s efforts to tame a growing cost-of-living crisis, official data showed yesterday.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 10.4 percent year-on-year, up from 10.1 percent in January, the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The news strengthened the case for another interest rate increase at the central bank’s meeting today, despite calls for no change amid global turmoil in the commercial banking sector.
Photo: REUTERS
Expectations had been for a slowdown in inflation, but prices jumped for food and drinks — offset only partially by falling fuel costs.
“Inflation ticked up in February, mainly driven by rising alcohol prices in pubs and restaurants following discounting in January,” ONS Chief Economist Grant Fitzner said. “Food and nonalcoholic drink prices rose to their highest rate in more than 45 years, with particular increases for some salad and vegetable items, as high energy costs and bad weather across parts of Europe led to shortages and rationing.”
The central bank is caught between hiking borrowing costs to dampen inflation — or hanging fire amid ongoing fallout from the collapse of two regional US banks and UBS Group AG’s buyout of embattled Swiss giant Credit Suisse Group AG.
Yesterday’s data came after the British government last week forecast that inflation would slow sharply to 2.9 percent by the end of the year, with the UK set to avoid recession.
The predictions were published alongside British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt’s massive ￡94 billion (US$115.5 billion) cost-of-living measures for this year and next.
“We need to stick to our plan to halve it this year,” Hunt said yesterday in response to the latest data. “We recognize just how tough things are for families across the country, so as we work towards getting inflation under control we will help families with cost-of-living support.”
Inflation around the world had struck the highest levels in decades last year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fueled energy and food prices.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS