The UK inflation rate was 3.6 percent in June 2025, up from 3.4 percent in the previous month, and the fastest rate of inflation since January 2024. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. Due to this long period of high inflation, UK consumer prices have increased by over 20 percent in the last three years. As of the most recent month, prices were rising fastest in the communications sector, at 6.1 percent, but were falling in both the furniture and transport sectors, at -0.3 percent and -0.6 percent, respectively.
The Cost of Living Crisis High inflation is one of the main factors behind the ongoing Cost of Living Crisis in the UK, which, despite subsiding somewhat in 2024, is still impacting households going into 2025. In December 2024, for example, 56 percent of UK households reported their cost of living was increasing compared with the previous month, up from 45 percent in July, but far lower than at the height of the crisis in 2022. After global energy prices spiraled that year, the UK's energy price cap increased substantially. The cap, which limits what suppliers can charge consumers, reached 3,549 British pounds per year in October 2022, compared with 1,277 pounds a year earlier. Along with soaring food costs, high-energy bills have hit UK households hard, especially lower income ones that spend more of their earnings on housing costs. As a result of these factors, UK households experienced their biggest fall in living standards in decades in 2022/23. Global inflation crisis causes rapid surge in prices The UK's high inflation, and cost of living crisis in 2022 had its origins in the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the initial waves of the virus, global supply chains struggled to meet the renewed demand for goods and services. Food and energy prices, which were already high, increased further in 2022. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 brought an end to the era of cheap gas flowing to European markets from Russia. The war also disrupted global food markets, as both Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of cereal crops. As a result of these factors, inflation surged across Europe and in other parts of the world, but typically declined in 2023, and approached more usual levels by 2024.

In 2024, the annual inflation rate for the United Kingdom was 2.5 percent, with the average rate for 2025 predicted to rise to 3.2 percent, revised upwards from an earlier prediction of 2.6 percent. The UK has only recently recovered from a period of elevated inflation, which saw the CPI rate reach 9.1 percent in 2022, and 7.3 percent in 2023. Despite an uptick in inflation expected in 2025, the inflation rate is expected to fall to 2.1 percent in 2026, and two percent between 2027 and 2029. UK inflation crisis Between 2021 and 2023, inflation surged in the UK, reaching a 41-year-high of 11.1 percent in October 2022. Although inflation fell to more usual levels by 2024, prices in the UK had already increased by over 20 percent relative to the start of the crisis. The two main drivers of price increases during this time were food and energy inflation, two of the main spending areas of UK households. Although food and energy prices came down quite sharply in 2023, underlying core inflation, which measures prices rises without food and energy, remained slightly above the headline inflation rate throughout 2024, suggesting some aspects of inflation had become embedded in the UK economy. Inflation rises across in the world in 2022 The UK was not alone in suffering from runaway inflation over the last few years. From late 2021 onwards, various factors converged to encourage a global acceleration of prices, leading to the ongoing inflation crisis. Blocked-up supply chains were one of the main factors as the world emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed by energy and food inflation skyrocketing after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Central bank interest rates were raised globally in response to the problem, possibly putting an end to the era of cheap money that has defined monetary policy since the financial crash of 2008.

Inflation Rate in the United Kingdom increased to 3.60 percent in June from 3.40 percent in May of 2025. This dataset provides - United Kingdom Inflation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Measures of monthly UK inflation data including CPIH, CPI and RPI. These tables complement the consumer price inflation time series dataset.

In May 2025, the UK inflation rate was 3.6 percent, with prices rising fastest in the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels sector, which had an inflation rate of 7.8 percent. In this month, prices were rising in all sectors, with prices rising at the slowest pace in the clothing and footwear sector. UK inflation falls in 2024 After reaching a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, the CPI inflation rate in the UK gradually declined over several months, falling to a low of 1.7 percent by August 2024. An uptick in inflation has occurred since that month, however, and by the end of the year, inflation was at 2.5 percent above the Bank of England's target rate of two percent. Going into 2025, recent forecasts suggest that over the course of the year, inflation will average out at 2.6 percent, with the two percent target not met on an annual basis until at least 2029. Roots of the inflation crisis This long period of high inflation that the UK and much of the world experienced had its roots in the post-pandemic economic recovery of 2021. During that year, as consumer demand returned, global supply chains struggled to return to full capacity, resulting in prices rising. With inflation already elevated going into 2022, Russia's invasion of Ukraine added even more inflationary pressures to the global economy. European markets which were heavily reliant on Russian oil and gas gradually phased out hydrocarbons from their economies. Food prices were also heavily impacted due to Ukraine's difficulty in exporting its agricultural products.

After reaching a peak of 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, the CPI inflation rate in the United Kingdom has fallen considerably, and was 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. In 2025, there is expected to be an uptick in inflation, with prices expected to be increasing by 3.7 percent in the third quarter of 2025, before falling to two percent by the second quarter of 2026. Inflation and the Cost of Living The high inflation experienced by the UK since late 2021 is one of the main factors behind the country's ongoing cost of living crisis. Price surges, in relation to food and energy costs in particular, played havoc with the finances of UK households. At the height of the crisis, around nine out of ten households were experiencing a cost of living increase compared to the previous month. Although inflation has eased since reaching a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, and wages are growing in real terms, approximately 59 percent of households were still experiencing rising costs relative to the previous month in March 2025. Economic growth downgraded for 2025 Since 2022, the economy has generally been the main issue for UK voters, seen by 51 percent of people as one of the top three issues facing the country in March 2025. Throughout this time, UK households have struggled through a cost of living crisis, while the wider economy has struggled to achieve consistent growth. Between the first quarter of 2022, the UK economy has alternated between periods of low growth and minor contractions, with the UK even in recession at the end of 2023. While there was a slight uptick in growth in 2024, this momentum appears to have already been lost, with the UK's economic growth forecast for 2025 recently downgraded from two percent to one percent.

The inflation rate for the Retail Price Index (RPI) in the United Kingdom was 4.4 percent in June 2025, up from 4.3 percent in the previous month. From 2021 onwards, prices in the UK rose rapidly, with the RPI inflation rate peaking at 14.2 percent in October 2022. Although inflation fell in subsequent months, it wasn't until July 2023 that inflation fell below double digits, and as of late 2024, the RPI rate was still above three percent. The CPI and CPIH While the retail price index is still a popular method of calculating inflation, the consumer price index (CPI) is the current main measurement of inflation in the UK. There is also an additional price index, which includes some extra housing costs, known as the Consumer Price Index including homer occupiers' costs (CPIH) index, which is seen by the UK's Office of National Statistics as the official inflation rate. As of December 2024, the CPI inflation rate stood at 2.5 percent, while the CPIH rate was 3.5 percent. Core inflation down in 2024 Another way of measuring inflation is to strip out the volatility of energy and food prices and look at the underlying core inflation rate. As of December 2024, this was 3.2 percent, slightly higher than the overall CPI rate, but more aligned with the overall figure than it was in 2022 and 2023. When inflation peaked at 11.2 percent in October 2022, for example, core inflation stood at just 6.5 percent. After energy prices in 2023 fell relative to 2022, the overall inflation rate in the UK declined quite rapidly, with core inflation overtaking the overall rate in July 2023. During the most recent period of high inflation, core inflation peaked at 7.1 percent in May 2023, and while taking longer to fall than the overall figure, has generally been declining since then.

Inflation is an important measure of any country’s economy, and the Retail Price Index (RPI) is one of the most widely used indicators in the United Kingdom, with the rate expected to be 4.1 percent in 2025, compared with 3.6 percent in 2024. This followed 2022, when RPI inflation reached a rate of 11.6 percent, by far the highest annual rate during this provided time period. CPI vs RPI Although the Retail Price Index is a commonly utilized inflation indicator, the UK also uses a newer method of calculating inflation, the Consumer Price Index. The CPI, along with the CPIH (Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers' housing costs) are usually preferred by the UK government, but the RPI is still used in certain instances. Increases in rail fares for example, are calculated using the RPI, while increases in pension payments are calculated using CPI, when this is used as the uprating factor. The use of one inflation measure over the other can therefore have a significant impact on people’s lives in the UK. High inflation falls to more typical levels by 2024 Like the Retail Price Index, the Consumer Price Index inflation rate also reached a recent peak in October 2022. In that month, prices were rising by 11.1 percent and did not fall below double figures until April 2023. This fall was largely due to slower price increases in key sectors such as energy, which drove a significant amount of the 2022 wave of inflation. Inflation nevertheless remains elevated, fueled not only by high food inflation, but also by underlying core inflation. As of February 2025, the overall CPI inflation rate was 2.8 percent, although an uptick in inflation is expected later in the year, with a rate of 3.7 percent forecast for the third quarter of the year.

In June 2025, the Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) inflation rate of the United Kingdom was ****percent, up from **** percent in the previous month. The inflation rate fell noticeably after the COVID-19 pandemic but rose sharply between Spring 2021 and Autumn 2022. After peaking at *** percent in October 2022, CPIH inflation declined throughout 2023 and into 2024, falling to *** percent by September of that year, before increasing again recently. Cost of living problems persist into 2025 Although it is likely that the worst of the recent inflation surge may have passed, the issues caused by it look set to linger into 2025 and beyond. While the share of households experiencing living cost rises has fallen from ** percent in August 2022, to ** percent in July 2024, this share rose towards the end of the year, with more than half of households reporting rising costs in December. Even with lower inflation, overall consumer prices have already increased by around ** percent in the last three years, rising to almost ** percent for food prices, which lower income households typically spend more of their income on. The significant increase in people relying on food banks across the UK, is evidence of the magnitude of this problem, with approximately **** million people using food banks in 2023/24. Other measures of inflation While the CPIH inflation rate displayed here is the preferred index of the UK's Office of National Statistics, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is often more prominently featured in the media in general. An older index, the Retail Price Index (RPI) is also still used by the government to calculate certain taxes and rail fares. Other metrics include the core inflation rate, which measures price increases without the volatility of food and energy costs, while price increases in goods and services can also be tracked separately. The inflation rate of individual sectors can also be measured, and as of December 2024, prices were rising fastest in the communications sector, at *** percent, with costs falling in the transport and furniture sectors.

The Retail Price Index (RPI) is one of the main measures of inflation used to calculate the change in the price of goods and services within the British economy. In the second quarter of 2025 the index value was 403.2, indicating that the price for a fixed basket of goods had increased by almost more than 300 percent since 1987. The RPI inflation rate for June 2025 was 4.4 percent, up from 3.2 percent in March 2025 Inflation and UK living standards For UK consumers, high inflation is one of the main drivers of the ongoing cost of living crisis. With wages struggling to keep up with the pace of inflation for a long period between 2021 and 2023, UK households saw their living standards fall significantly. In 2022/23, real household disposable income in the UK is estimated to have fallen by 2.1 percent, which was the biggest fall in living standards since 1956. While there have been some signals that the crisis eased somewhat in 2024, such as falling energy and food inflation, an increasing share of UK households have reported increasing living costs since Summer 2024. Additional inflation indicators Aside from the Retail Price Index, the UK also produces other inflation indices such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH). While these particular indices measure consumer price increases slightly differently, they both provide an overall picture of rising prices. More specific inflation rates, such as by sector, are also produced, while other indices omit certain items, such as core inflation, which excludes food and energy inflation, to provide a more stable measure of inflation.

In March 2025, the inflation rate for food prices in the United Kingdom was measured at three percent. A period of continuous deflation between March 2015 and January 2017 preceded a return to a sustained rise in the cost of food from February 2017 onwards. While food prices were deflating between September 2020 and July 2021, they started increasing rapidly from August 2021 to March 2023. The inflation rate started to decline from April 2023. Inflation rate and consumer price indexInflation is commonly measured via the consumer price index, which illustrates changes to prices paid by consumers for a representative basket of goods and services. An annualized percentage change in the price index constitutes a measure of inflation. In order to maintain an inflation rate at a stable level, to enable the general public and businesses to plan their spending, the Government set a two percent inflation target for the Bank of England. The discounter boom The increase in food prices in the United Kingdom has shifted shopping behaviours amongst consumers. Value is now key and shoppers are changing their retailer loyalties. Aldi, the German discount supermarket retailer, overtook Morrisons as Great Britain's fourth largest supermarket in September of 2022. Aldi's market share reached double digits for the first time in April 2023. It is yet to be seen if Lidl, Aldi's discounter competitor, can also continue to rise up in the ranks and eventually take over Morrisons as the fifth leading food retailer.

In the three months to May 2025, average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom grew by five percent, while pay including bonuses also grew by five percent, when compared with the same period leading to April 2024. In the same month, the inflation rate for the Consumer Price Index was 3.4 percent, indicating that wages were rising faster than prices that month. Average salaries in the UK In 2024, the average salary for full-time workers in the UK was 37,430 British pounds a year, up from 34,963 in the previous year. In London, the average annual salary was far higher than the rest of the country, at 47,455 pounds per year, compared with just 32,960 in North East England. There also still exists a noticeable gender pay gap in the UK, which was seven percent for full-time workers in 2024, down from 7.5 percent in 2023. Lastly, the monthly earnings of the top one percent in the UK was 15,887 pounds as of November 2024, far higher than even that of the average for the top five percent, who earned 7,641 pounds per month, while pay for the lowest 10 percent of earners was just 805 pounds per month. Waves of industrial action in the UK One of the main consequences of high inflation and low wage growth throughout 2022 and 2023 was an increase in industrial action in the UK. In December 2022, for example, there were approximately 830,000 working days lost due to labor disputes. Throughout this month, workers across various industry sectors were involved in industrial disputes, such as nurses, train drivers, and driving instructors. Many of the workers who took part in strikes were part of the UK's public sector, which saw far weaker wage growth than that of the private sector throughout 2022. Widespread industrial action continued into 2023, with approximately 303,000 workers involved in industrial disputes in March 2023. There was far less industrial action by 2024, however, due to settlements in many of the disputes, although some are ongoing as of 2025.

In 2023/24 the state pension in the United Kingdom grew by **** percent, based on the CPI inflation rate the previous September. The triple lock system determines how much the state pension grows in the UK based on which of three different measures are highest; the inflation rate, earnings growth, or *** percent.

In June 2025, 59 percent of households in Great Britain reported that their cost of living had increased in the previous month, compared with 72 percent in April. Although the share of people reporting a cost of living increase has generally been falling since August 2022, when 91 percent of households reported an increase, the most recent figures indicate that the Cost of Living Crisis is still ongoing for many households in the UK. Crisis ligers even as inflation falls Although various factors have been driving the Cost of Living Crisis in Britain, high inflation has undoubtedly been one of the main factors. After several years of relatively low inflation, the CPI inflation rate shot up from 2021 onwards, hitting a high of 11.1 percent in October 2022. In the months since that peak, inflation has fallen to more usual levels, and was 2.5 percent in December 2024, slightly up from 1.7 percent in September. Since June 2023, wages have also started to grow at a faster rate than inflation, albeit after a long period where average wages were falling relative to overall price increases. Economy continues to be the main issue for voters Ahead of the last UK general election, the economy was consistently selected as the main issue for voters for several months. Although the Conservative Party was seen by voters as the best party for handling the economy before October 2022, this perception collapsed following the market's reaction to Liz Truss' mini-budget. Even after changing their leader from Truss to Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives continued to fall in the polls, and would go onto lose the election decisively. Since the election, the economy remains the most important issue in the UK, although it was only slightly ahead of immigration and health as of January 2025.