Inflation in Britain remained steady in January and above the Labour government's 2.5 per cent target for the third month in a row, official figures showed today.
Britain's national statistics office said retail prices excluding the cost of home loans (RPIX), fell by 0.1 per cent on the month, keeping the annual rate at 2.7 per cent, the same as in December but higher than market expectations of 2.6 per cent.
The headline rate, RPI, remained steady at 2.9 per cent, also higher than market forecasts.
The main upward contributor to inflation in January was clothing and footwear prices as many retailers started their discounting in December so prices did not fall as much as they usually do in the January sales. Next up was higher motoring costs as the cost of petrol and oil prices rose 7.2 per cent on a year earlier, the fastest rate since December 2000.
Though the Bank of England is charged with keeping inflation at 2.5 per cent, the above-target figure is unlikely to cause any alarm at the central bank as last week it predicted that RPIX would rise further toward 3 per cent before falling back down at the end of its two-year horizon.
As expected, the largest downward effect came from seasonal food prices as steep price rises a year earlier because of bad weather were not repeated this January. Seasonal food prices fell 7.7 per cent on a year ago.