Inflation in the UK soared to a 40-year high of 9 percent in April as food and energy prices spiralled, official figures revealed Wednesday, escalating the country’s cost-of-living crisis.
The 9pc rise in the consumer price index is the highest since records began in their current form in 1989, outstripping the 8.4pc annual rise posted in March 1992 and well ahead of the 7% seen in March of this year. The UK’s Office for National Statistics also said its estimates suggest that inflation would have last been higher “sometime around 1982.” From April 1, the UK energy regulator increased the household energy price cap by 54% following a surge in wholesale energy prices, including a record rise in global gas prices. —TLTP
