LONDON (Reuters) – British consumer price inflation unexpectedly held steady at an annual rate of 4.0% in January, unchanged from December, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday in a boost for the Bank of England.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast an increase to 4.2%.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food, energy, alcohol and tobacco prices, was also unchanged at 5.1%.
But services inflation – an indicator of domestic price pressures closely watched by the BoE as it considers when to start cutting interest rates – rose to 6.5% from 6.4% in December.
Sterling weakened against the dollar and the euro immediately after the inflation data was published.
(Reporting by Suban Abdulla; editing by William Schomberg)
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