UK inflation hits highest since October 1981 but it could have been much worse

  • The jump in inflation was mainly due to price rises for gas and electricity

For some context, the Ofgem price cap was replaced by the government's Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) starting from October and while that saw energy prices increase, the rate of the increase was limited so that a typical household in the UK would have to pay, on average, an energy bill of around £2,500 a year.

But according to the ONS, without the implementation of the EPG, electricity and gas prices would've increased by a whopping 75% (instead of the 25% recorded) and that would have translated to an annual headline inflation reading of 13.8%(!) instead. Yikes. Anyone's got the phone number to Bailey's office?

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