U.K. annual consumer prices surged 10.1% in July to the highest level since the 1980s amid soaring food costs, the Office for National Statistics reported Wednesday.
The jump follows an annual rise of 9.4% in June, and was higher than expectations, with economist polled by FactSet forecasting a rise of 9.8% in July. Rising food prices made the largest upward contribution to the change in annual consumer price inflation (CPI) between June and July.
On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.6% in July.
The surge in CPI marked the highest level since the National Statistics series began in 1997, officials said. But based on modeling of consumer price estimates, the CPI would have last been higher in 1982, where estimates ranged from nearly 11% in January of that year to 6.5% in December.
The British pound
GBPUSD,
initially shot higher on the data, but pulled back, last trading modestly higher at $1.2104.
