Inflation more than doubled last month as the economy began to re-open and the base effect of 2020’s slump began to feed through into the annualised change, rising from 0.7% to 1.5%.
The figure was broadly in line with expectation, pushing forward measures of inflation to their highest since 2008, driven by household staples such as transport, clothing, and home energy bills.
Less benignly, supply-chain disruption was a source of sharply higher prices, one Brexit-related disruption, tight manufacturing bottlenecks and a big increase in freight costs.
Deloitte senior economist said: ’April’s price rises provide an early indication of the inflationary environment we are likely to see as activity picks up over the summer months.
‘Supply has struggled to keep up as the economy whirrs into action, with input prices rising at their fastest pace in more than four years. But ample spare capacity and labour market slack should limit longer-term price pressures.’
Oil was among the principal drivers, with the current $70 comparing to the $20 cost per barrel of…
