UK inflation sees a new two-year high as clothing prices rise

Inflation rate rises…

Clothing prices have risen dramatically in six years and this has helped drive the UK’s inflation rate by 1.2 per cent in November, this is up from 0.9 per cent in October.

November’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rate has been the highest since October 2014, when it stood at 1.3 per cent.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Increases in the price of petrol was also the reason as to why the inflation rate rose so much.

Increases were partly offset due to falls in air fares.

Mike Prestwood, ONS head of inflation, said: “November’s slight rally in the value of sterling eased the inflationary pressure on businesses importing raw materials, but consumer prices continued to edge upwards, due mainly to the rising cost of clothing and fuel.”

The fall in the Stirling will start to feed through to shop prices even further in February or March.

Between October and November petrol prices climbed and rose by 1.6p a litre to 115.4p, this compares with a fall of 1.5p a litre a year ago. Diesel also saw effects on price, they added 2p a litre to 118p, last year diesel prices saw a fall of 0.6p.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages climbed 0.4 per cent in November, this was a massive four times the rate for the same month last year.

Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Sterling weakness continues to raise the cost of inputs for UK businesses, and there are signs these cost increases are slowly being passed on to consumers,”