Commenting on today’s data from the Office of National Statistics, that showed the annual rate of CPI inflation flatlining at 6.7% in September, the same rate as in August, Kitty Ussher, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, said:

“Although prices actually fell in the broad categories of food and transport in September, this wasn’t enough to move the headline annual inflation rate because of the mathematical effect of transport prices having fallen faster this time last year. This wasn’t helped by recent price increases in petrol and diesel, which make up a large component of the transport category.

“Looking forwards however it is likely that there will be better news next month because we will see the effect of the Ofgem household energy price cap shifting down in October, which makes up a large proportion of the index used to calculate CPI inflation.”