Official figures show that British factory gate inflation rose to a near two-and-a-half-year high in March due to soaring food and energy costs.
The data are likely to increase the chances of the Bank of England raising interest rates next month, after keeping them at a record low 0.5% on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics said producer output prices rose by 5.4%, their biggest annual gain since October 2008.
The BoE faces a dilemma of whether to raise interest rates at a time when underlying economic growth is weak and inflation pressures may prove temporary, though the current inflation rate of 4.4% is more than double the BoE's target.
The producer price data suggests there will be upward pressure on consumer inflation for several more months, adding to the risk that firms and households may start to lose confidence in the central bank.
Separate construction industry data also released by the ONS cast doubt on the likely strength of first quarter UK GDP data due later in April. Construction output volumes were 0.3% lower than a year earlier in February.
The ONS data showed that input price inflation eased to an annual rate of 14.6%, down from an upwardly revised February reading of 14.9%, which was the highest since October 2008. But this was still far higher than the forecasts of 12.5%.
Stripping out the effect of rising food and petrol prices, core output price inflation slowed slightly to 3% from 3.1%. Crude oil prices jumped 9.8% on the month, their biggest rise since March 2010, and are now more than a third higher than a year ago. Domestically produced food costs were 13% more than a year ago.
