Daily Times

British consumer price inflation is likely to peak at an annual rate above 15pc in the first three months of next year unless there are government measures to lower prices, economists at US bank Citi forecast on Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, official figures showed CPI hit 10.1pc in July, above all economists’ predictions in a Reuters poll. “In our view, the composition re-affirms the risk of more sustained domestic inflation. In the absence of offsetting support, we expect CPI inflation to accelerate to over 15pc in Q1-23,” Citi economist Benjamin Nabarro wrote in a note to clients. Citi had previously forecast CPI inflation would peak at just below 12pc. Citi also revised up its expectations for BoE interest rates, predicting they would rise by 1.25 percentage points to 3pc by the end of this year, up from a previous forecast for a half percentage point rise in the remainder of 2022.