MNI 5 Things: UK CPI Below Expectations Before Aug MPC Meet

By Jamie Satchithanantham and Laurie Laird

     LONDON (MNI) - The following are the key points from the ONS' inflation

data published Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics.

     - CPI steadied at an annual rate of 2.4%, confounding expectations,

potentially changing the landscape for the Bank of England's Monetary Policy

Committee, which considers rates on Aug 1 ahead of the Aug 2 announcement.

     - Core inflation fell to an annual rate of 1.9%, the lowest since Mar 2017.

Wage growth has failed to meet the Bank's expectations, with nominal total wages

rising by an annual rate of 2.5% between March and May.

     - An 11.6% rise in fuel prices failed to lift broader consumer price

inflation, countered by a sharp fall in clothing prices in June. A decrease in

the price of computer games -- always a volatile component of the CPI -- also

kept the broader index in check.

     - House prices rose just 3.0%, the joint lowest increase since August of

2013. However London prices slipped by an annual pace of 0.4%, the fourth

consecutive decline.

     - It remains unclear whether the 50.7% annual rise in crude oil prices will

feed through to consumer inflation in coming months. Producer input prices

accelerated to an annual gain of 10.2%, while producer output prices rose to a

pace of 3.1% from 3.0%.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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