The cost of goods leaving Britain's factories, excluding volatile components like petrol, rose at the fastest rate in nearly nine years in July, official data showed this morning.
The figures suggesting that underlying inflationary pressures are on the way up.
The Office for National Statistics said that 'core' output prices, which exclude food, drink, tobacco and petrol, rose by 0.3% in July, the biggest monthly gain since September 1995 and three times the rate predicted by analysts. That took the annual rate to 1.6%, its strongest since June 1996.
But unadjusted output prices rose by less than expected in July, gaining by 0.1% on the month and by 2.5% on the year, partly as price rises in manufactured and metal products were offset by a fall in petrol product prices.
