UK consumer price inflation rose again in August, and petrol has decided that a supporting role is beneath it. CPIH reached 3.3% over the 12 months to August, up from 3.1% in July, while CPI rose to 3.1% from 2.9%. The official figures arrived with the quiet dignity of statistics. Petrol arrived wearing a hat large enough to block the view of the household budget.
Both measures rose by 0.5% during the month, compared with 0.3% in August last year. This gives Britain two matching figures to admire while drivers study the pump as though it has personally betrayed them. The decimals remain calm. The forecourt has other plans.
UK consumer price inflation lets petrol write the plot
Transport made the largest upward contribution to the change in both annual rates, with motor fuels doing most of the lifting. Petrol rose by 9.1 pence per litre between July and August, reaching an average of 161.3 pence. Diesel rose by 14.2 pence to 181.8 pence.
Motor fuel prices rose by 23.0% over the 12 months. At that point, petrol no longer looks like a household expense. It looks like a monthly subscription to the privilege of reaching the place where you earn the money needed to buy more petrol. The car is merely the app.
The rest of the figures preserve the reassuring appearance of a system under control. Core CPIH, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, rose by 2.9%. Goods inflation increased from 2.2% to 2.7%, while services stayed at 3.6%. Somewhere inside this arrangement, a spreadsheet is being praised for remaining calm while the family car develops a financial personality.
That is the useful trick of UK consumer price inflation. It can describe a complicated collection of prices through several measures, exclusions and carefully labelled tables, while the forecourt delivers one simple message. Your journey has become an invoice with wheels.
The Office for National Statistics supplied the arithmetic. Britain supplied the interpretation, usually while holding a receipt beside a car that now demands the emotional attention once reserved for a difficult relative. Petrol has not merely entered the national economic drama. It has taken the keys, chosen the route and charged everyone for the privilege of watching it drive away.
Source: Office for National Statistics.
