Underlying inflation in Britain has tumbled to its lowest since last November and the joint weakest since records began in 1975, dampening fears of an interest rate rise next month.
The Office for National Statistics said falls in seasonal food and petrol prices pushed RPIX, which excludes volatile home loan payments, down to just 1.8 percent last month from April's 2.3 percent.
That is better than the 2.0 per cent figure pencilled in by economists and well below the Bank of England's government-set target of 2.5 per cent.
The fall, although likely to prove temporary, will make it difficult for the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee to put up interest rates next month, especially as it comes on top of the stock market turbulence of the past week or so.
That was certainly the view of financial markets as government bonds and rate futures jumped on the perception that the first rate hike may be further away than they had thought.
The FTSE 100 index of leading shares gained 10 points on the data on the view that any delay in rate hikes would help companies' balance sheets. It was up 17 to around 4,774 although it later fell back into negative territory.