UK inflation jumped to a seven-month high last month, driven by sharp increases in household gas and electricity bills, as Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, joined the growing chorus of concern at rising prices.
Consumer price inflation rose to 2.2 per cent, official figures showed.
That is above the Bank of England's 2 per cent target for the first time since last November.
Mr Brown said yesterday that the economy was facing a "time of inflationary pressure".
Pledging that public- sector pay settlements would be based on the 2 per cent consumer price index (CPI) target in future, the chancellor said: "We will be resolute in our anti-inflation discipline."
On Monday Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, warned of the threat posed by rising global inflation, which has preoccupied central banks in recent weeks and contributed to falling share prices.
Mr King warned that Britain risked importing inflation through rising import prices. Trade figures on Friday showed underlying import prices rising at their fastest in more than a decade.
Mr King suggested that the economy could not expect to continue to benefit from cheap imports from China helping to drive down goods prices. - (Financial Times service)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)