Mark Carney Forced To Explain Surge In UK Inflation To Highest In Almost 6 Years
The market expected Mark Carney to avoid it but it was just not meant to be.
The BoE Governor will suffer the ignominy of a bizarre tradition of having to write a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer explaining why UK inflation is more than 1.0% above the target of 2.0%. The market had expected the UK CPI to rise by a modest 0.2% month-on-month, taking the year-on-year rate up to 3.0%. Instead the month-on-month rate hit 0.3% pushing the annual rate to 3.1%, its highest rate since March 2012.
As Bloomberg writes, “U.K. inflation unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest in more than 5 1/2 years in November, forcing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney to explain why price growth is so far above target. Consumer prices rose 3.1 percent from a year earlier, driven by the cost of air fares and computer games, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. That’s up from 3 percent in October and the highest since March 2012.”
The latest reading means Carney is now compelled to write to Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond explaining why inflation is more than 1 percentage point away from the official 2 percent target. The letter will be published alongside the BOE’s policy decision in February, rather than this week, as the Monetary Policy Committee has already started its meetings for its Dec. 14 announcement.
Rising costs of airfares along with petrol and energy prices were expected to have been offset by an easing in food and clothing price pressures, the latter helped by seasonal promotions. However, the price of computer games rose more than expected and higher chocolate prices saw food and non-alcoholic drink prices rise 4.1% versus November 2016, the highest level since 2013.
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