Citigroup has forecast that UK inflation will plunge from double-digit rates to close to 2 per cent by the end of this year as rapid falls in gas prices give Rishi Sunak’s government hope of solving some of its biggest economic challenges.
Citi said on Wednesday that consumer price inflation was likely to fall to 2.3 per cent in November, well below the Bank of England’s forecast that it would remain around 4 per cent in the fourth quarter of the year.
The new projections provide a fillip for the UK prime minister, potentially making it easier to resolve public sector strikes over pay and to fulfil his pledge of halving inflation by the end of the year. The inflation rate in January was 10.1 per cent.