The head of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, said that inflation in the UK turned out to be more stable than expected, and it will take more time to achieve a significant slowdown. At the same time, the head of the British Central Bank believes that there are still chances to achieve a halving of the inflation rate this year. Recall that consumer prices in the UK in April increased by 8.7% year-on-year. Inflation slowed down from 10.1% in March, but turned out to be higher than the experts' consensus forecast of 8.2%. The peak of inflation (11.1%) was passed at the end of 2022. According to Bailey, the published statistical data do not indicate the formation of an inflationary spiral, but only indicate in which segments price growth is accelerating. In particular, inflation excluding food, alcohol, tobacco and energy (core inflation, CPI Core) accelerated to 6.8% in April from 6.2% in March. The growth of prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages slowed to 19.1% from 19.2% a month earlier. The head of the central bank stressed that the British regulator will carefully evaluate the data on the dynamics of food prices and core inflation before making the next decision on the rate. In May, the Bank of England raised the base interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.5% per annum. The rate was raised following the results of the twelfth meeting in a row and updated the maximum since 2008.
