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UK Inflation Expected Close to Zero

A projected uptick in core commodities prices, along with steady advances in non-energy services costs, is expected to have pushed the CPI excluding volatile food and energy components 0.2% higher for the third time in the last five months.

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Inflation is forecast to remain at minus 0.1% for October when official figures are released on Tuesday.

Average inflation in 2015 is set to register flat at 0pc, one of the lowest years of consumer price inflation in the post-war era, according to analysts at Barclays.

The United Kingdom inflation rate has come in below zero in three months this year after plummeting at the turn of the year on the back of collapsing oil prices.

Falling food prices are behind a few of the overall fall in inflation to negative territory.

“Inflation is negative in the United Kingdom but we must be ready for this support for consumption to fade as we enter 2016”, said Jeremy Cook at World First.

Low inflation eases pressure on the Bank of England to increase interest rates as it seeks to keep CPI from heading above its 2% target.

However, the rise is still much lower than a year previously, when prices were rising by more than 12%.

Retail price inflation fell to 0.7 percent in October from 0.8 percent in September, marking the weakest RPI reading since November 2009.

The quarterly inflation report said the outlook for global growth had weakened since the previous report in August, with a few emerging economies having “slowed markedly”.

He added: “The benefit of ongoing low inflation is not only that interest rates will stay lower for longer but that real wage growth remains robust, which will in turn continue to boost consumer spending power and help sustain the economic upturn”.

Reiterating his stance that a rate cut was as plausible as a rate rise, he said that a hike in the cost of borrowing now would ‘increase unnecessarily the chances of the economy falling below critical velocity’.

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The Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation held steady at -0.1 percent on the year, in line with expectations in a Reuters poll of economists.

China inflation slows in October