lundi 13 avril 2015

Deflation to Roil UK Even With Oil Prices Steady

The annual rate of the UK CPI dropped to 0% in February, the lowest official rate on record. The overall index was then pushed down primarily by steep declines in the price of food and transport. Even though economists' median expectation points to no change in the CPI rate in March, the headline reading may surprise on the downside given the strong downward effects of lower prices of energy and food feeding slowly through to the wider economy.



Core CPI inflation, an underlying reading of domestic price pressures, is expected to have remained unchanged from the previous month at +1.2% - the lowest level since December 2008. The Office for National Statistics is releasing March figures on Tuesday at 8:30 am GMT.



In his speech he gave on March 11, Bank of England (BoE) policymaker Martin Weale said the BoE expected the biggest downward pressure on the annual CPI inflation to come in March or April, "even though oil prices have not fallen further since the start of January," while arguing that "some of the effects of oil price falls take time to work through the system."



According to OPEC's monthly basket price level, crude oil prices fell during the month of March by 2.7% when compared with February, averaging at $52.28. So far into 2015, crude has been selling at the average price of $50.24, 47.8% lower when compared with the previous year's average price.



The latest Shop Price Index, published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) last week, showed prices in UK shops had continued to fall deeper into deflation territory for the 23rd consecutive month in March and hit the lowest level on record.

Deflation to Roil UK Even With Oil Prices Steady

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