Sharjah24 – AFP: British annual inflation has hit a fresh 40-year high, official data showed Wednesday, further eroding workers' wages and pressuring the Bank of England to keep on raising interest rates.
The rate edged higher to 9.1 percent in May from 9.0 percent in April, remaining at the highest level since 1982, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
UK inflation is set to top 11 percent before the end of the year according to the Bank of England, fuelled by soaring energy prices that have raised the prospect of a global recession.
UK inflation increased in May on "continued steep food price rises and record high petrol prices", said ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner.
This was offset by clothing costs rising by less than a year earlier and a drop in prices of computer games, he added.
Decades-high inflation is causing a cost-of-living crisis.
Britain's railway workers are this week staging the sector's biggest strike action in more than 30 years, as soaring prices erode the value of wages.
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