The annual inflation rate of the United Kingdom climbed further above the Bank of England’s target rate in November 2024, at the same time, Nigeria’s inflation surged to 34.60 percent.
The Office for National Statistics said in a statement on Wednesday that the Consumer Prices Index reached 2.6 percent in the 12 months to November, up from 2.3 percent in October.
The data aligns with expectations that the BoE will avoid cutting interest rates this week.
The BoE, which decides on rates Thursday, has an inflation target of 2.0 percent.
The data is a blow to the Labour government, which has found efforts to grow the economy come unstuck since winning power in July.
“I know families are still struggling with the cost of living, and today’s figures are a reminder that for too long the economy has not worked for working people,” Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said in reaction to the inflation data.
Further analysis of November’s CPI report showed that, on a monthly basis, it rose by 0.1 percent compared with a fall of 0.2 percent a year earlier.
The largest upward contribution to the monthly change came from transport, it said.
The UK inflation data comes barely 48 hours after Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics released Africa’s most populous country’s CPI data, which stood at 34.60 percent.
Also, the data showed that food inflation rose to 39.93 percent in the period under review, as Nigerians lament the impact of the rising cost of living.
