Consumer price inflation, UK: April 2024

• The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to April 2024, down from 3.8% in the 12 months to March.

• On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.5% in April 2024, compared with a rise of 1.2% in April 2023.

• The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.3% in the 12 months to April 2024, down from 3.2% in the 12 months to March.

• On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.3% in April 2024, compared with a rise of 1.2% in April 2023.

• Falling gas and electricity prices resulted in the largest downward contributions to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates, while the largest, partially offsetting, upward contribution came from motor fuels, with prices rising this year but falling a year ago.

• Core CPIH (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 4.4% in the 12 months to April 2024, down from 4.7% in March; the CPIH goods annual rate slowed from 0.9% to negative 0.8%, while the CPIH services annual rate was unchanged at 6.0%.

• Core CPI (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 3.9% in the 12 months to April 2024, down from 4.2% in March; the CPI goods annual rate slowed from 0.8% to negative 0.8%, while the CPI services annual rate eased slightly, from 6.0% to 5.9%.

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to April 2024, down from 3.8% in the 12 months to March, and down from a recent peak of 9.6% in October 2022.

Our Consumer price inflation, historical estimates and recent trends article suggests that the October 2022 inflation rate was the highest in over 40 years (the CPIH Accredited Official Statistic series begins in January 2006). The annual rate in April 2024 was the lowest since September 2021, when it was 2.9%.

The monthly CPIH rate in April 2024 was 0.5%, compared with 1.2% a year earlier.

The owner occupiers’ housing costs (OOH) component of CPIH rose by 6.6% in the 12 months to April 2024, up from 6.3% in the 12 months to March. This is the highest annual rate since July 1992 in the constructed historical series. OOH costs rose by 0.6% on the month, compared with a 0.3% increase between March and April 2023.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.3% in the 12 months to April 2024, down from 3.2% in the 12 months to March, and well below its recent peak of 11.1% in October 2022. Our indicative modelled consumer price inflation estimates suggest that the October 2022 peak was the highest rate in over 40 years (the CPI Accredited Official Statistic series begins in January 1997). The annual rate in April 2024 was the lowest since July 2021, when it was 2.0%.

The easing in the annual rate between March and April 2024 was a result of prices rising by 0.3% on the month, compared with a rise of 1.2% a year earlier.

The main drivers of the annual inflation rate for CPIH and CPI are the same where they are common to both measures. However, the OOH component accounts for approximately 16% of the CPIH and is the main driver for differences between the CPIH and CPI inflation rates. This makes CPIH our most comprehensive measure of inflation. We cover this in more detail in Section 4: Latest movements in CPIH inflation and provide a commentary on the CPI in Section 5: Latest movements in CPI inflation. We also cover both CPIH and CPI in Section 3: Notable movements in prices, though the figures reflect CPIH.

The easing in the annual inflation rates in April 2024 principally reflected price changes in the housing and household services division, particularly for gas and electricity. There were also large downward effects from alcohol and tobacco, food and non-alcoholic beverages, recreation and culture, and communication. Restaurants and hotels, and miscellaneous goods and services provided small, partially offsetting, upward contributions.

Housing and household services

Housing and household services prices fell by 0.1% between March and April 2024, compared with a monthly rise of 1.0% a year ago. This resulted in an annual rate of 2.0% in the year to April 2024, down from 3.1% in the year to March. This compares with a recent annual peak of 11.8% in January and February 2023.

The easing in the annual rate reflected large downward effects from gas and electricity, which resulted from the lowering of the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) energy price cap in April 2024, described on the Ofgem website. Ofgem estimated that for an average household paying by direct debit for dual fuel, this equates to £1,690, a fall of £238 over the course of a year.

Prices of electricity, gas and other fuels fell by 27.1% in the year to April 2024, the largest fall on record, with figures available back to 1989. Gas prices fell by 37.5% on the year, compared with a fall of 26.5% in the year to March 2024, while electricity prices fell by 21.0%, compared with 13.0% in March.

Partially offsetting the downward contribution from gas and electricity, was a small upward effect from owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs, which rose by 6.6% in the year to April 2024, compared with a rise of 6.3% in the year to March. The OOH annual rate was last higher in July 1992.

Alcohol and tobacco

Prices of alcohol and tobacco overall were little changed between March and April 2024, compared with a rise of 3.6% a year ago. On an annual basis, prices rose by 8.0% in the year to April, down from 11.9% in the year to March.

The main contribution to the easing in the rate came from tobacco, where prices rose by 0.8% in the month to April 2024, compared with a larger rise of 6.9% in April 2023. The rise in April 2023 was influenced by an increase in tobacco duty. There was no rise in duty in April 2024.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 2.9% in the year to April 2024, down from 4.0% in the year to March. The April figure is the lowest annual rate since November 2021. The rate has eased for the 13th consecutive month from a recent high of 19.2% in March 2023, the highest annual rate seen for over 45 years.

Prices rose by 0.3% between March and April 2024, compared with a monthly rise of 1.4% a year ago. Prices have been relatively high but stable since early summer 2023, rising by around 2% between May 2023 and April 2024. This compares with a sharp rise of around 22% seen between March 2022 and May 2023.

The annual rates for most types of food product eased between March and April 2024. The main downward effects came from a combination of bread and cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetables, and soft drinks. In each case, the annual rate was the lowest seen for at least two years.

Overall, the annual rate eased in 8 of the 11 food and non-alcoholic beverages classes, the exceptions being oils and fats, fish, and hot beverages.

Transport

Prices in the transport division fell by 0.1% in the year to April 2024, an unchanged rate from March. The annual rate has been negative for the latest six months. Although the rate was unchanged overall, there were offsetting movements in some of the detailed categories, with upward effects from motor fuels and air fares offset by downward effects from second-hand cars, maintenance and repairs, and other services for personal transport equipment.

The average price of petrol rose by 3.3 pence per litre between March and April 2024 to stand at 148.1 pence per litre, up from 145.8 pence per litre in April 2023. Diesel prices rose by 3.0 pence per litre in April 2024 to stand at 157.1 pence per litre, down from 162.4 pence per litre in April 2023. These movements resulted in overall motor fuel prices falling by 0.3% in the year to April 2024, compared with a fall of 3.7% in March.

The small upward effect from air fares resulted from prices rising by more in April 2024 than a year ago. The effect came principally from European routes.

Second-hand car prices rose by 0.5% between March and April 2024, compared with a larger rise of 2.7% a year ago. On an annual basis, prices fell by 10.0% in the year to April 2024, compared with a fall of 8.1% in the year to March. The annual rate has been negative for nine consecutive months.

Prices of maintenance and repair rose by 0.2% in April 2024, compared with a monthly rise of 2.6% a year ago. This was principally because prices of roadside recovery services fell this year but rose a year ago.

The small downward effect from services for personal transport equipment came from vehicle excise duty, which rose by less this year than a year ago.

Figure 5 shows the annual inflation rates for the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) series for all goods and all services, together with CPIH excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco (often referred to as core CPIH). The CPIH inflation rate is added for comparison.

The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 4.4% in April 2024, which was the lowest rate since January 2022. It was down from 4.7% in March 2024 and from a recent high of 6.5% in May 2023, which was the highest rate since November 1991, when it was also 6.5% in the constructed historical series.

The CPIH all goods index fell by 0.8% in the 12 months to April 2024, compared with a rise of 0.9% in March. This is the first negative rate since February 2021, and the lowest rate since May 2020. The slowing in the annual rate has been caused by downward contributions to the change from industrial goods, and food, alcohol and tobacco. The only large, partially offsetting upward contribution was from motor fuels within the industrial goods category.

The CPIH all services index rose by 6.0% in the 12 months to April 2024, unchanged from March. The downward contributions to change came from communication, and travel and transport services. These were offset by upward contributions from recreational and personal services (principally cultural services), miscellaneous services and housing services.

Figure 6 shows how each of the main groups of goods and services contributed to the change in the annual CPIH inflation rate between March and April 2024. To understand what has changed the inflation rate between these months, we can look at the differences between the contributions each of the 12 divisions made to the rate in March 2024 and the rate in April 2024. These differences sum to the change in the annual CPIH rate between the latest two months, that is, the easing from 3.8% to 3.0%.

The slowing in the rate into April 2024 reflected downward contributions from six divisions, partially offset by small upward contributions from two divisions. The largest downward contributions came from housing and household services, alcohol and tobacco, food and non-alcoholic beverages, recreation and culture, and communication. The largest upward contributions were from restaurants and hotels, and miscellaneous goods and services.

Figure 7 shows the extent to which the distinct categories of goods and services have contributed to the overall annual CPIH inflation rate over the last two years. The contribution of each category to the annual rate depends on the price movement in that category as well as its weight, which is updated annually. Contributions help to explain what is driving the inflation rate by expressing it as the additive sum of its parts. For any one month, when added together, the contributions from the 12 divisions sum to the overall CPIH inflation rate, for example, 3.0% in April 2024.

The largest upward contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate in April 2024 came from restaurants and hotels, and housing and household services. The contribution from restaurants and hotels rose slightly to 0.69 percentage points in April 2024. The contribution from housing and household services was 0.60 percentage points, down from 0.94 percentage points in March, with the effect coming from gas and electricity because of the lowering of the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) energy price cap.

The contribution from food and non-alcoholic beverages eased for the 13th consecutive month, from a recent high of 1.76 percentage points in March 2023 to 0.28 percentage points in April 2024. This was the smallest contribution from this division since November 2021.

Small negative contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate came from furniture and household goods, and transport. Transport provided a negative contribution for the sixth consecutive month, though the negative contribution has become smaller.

Figure 8 shows the contribution of owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs and Council Tax to the annual CPIH inflation rate in the context of wider housing-related costs. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) differs from the CPIH because it does not include these two components.

OOH’s contribution rose from 1.01 to 1.04 percentage points between March and April 2024, while the contribution from Council Tax was unchanged at 0.14 percentage points.

While the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) is our lead and most comprehensive measure of consumer price inflation, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) is based on a harmonised methodology developed by Eurostat and allows for international comparisons to be drawn. For more information on the use cases for our consumer price inflation statistics, please refer to our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households: December 2023 article.

Figure 9 shows CPI inflation for the UK against the EU and selected Group of Seven (G7) countries. While the UK CPI is produced on a comparable basis with European Union countries, the United States Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) measure differs in some respects (see footnote 1 of Figure 9).

Figure 10 shows the annual inflation rates for the CPI all goods and all services series, together with CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco (often referred to as core CPI). The headline CPI inflation rate is added for comparison.

Core CPI rose by 3.9% in the year to April 2024, down from 4.2% in the year to March 2024 and below its recent high of 7.1% in May 2023, which was the highest recorded since 7.2% in March 1992 in the constructed historical series. The CPI all goods index fell by 0.8% in the year to April 2024, compared with a rise of 0.8% in the year to March 2024. This is the first negative rate since February 2021. The CPI all services index rose by 5.9% in the year to April 2024, marginally down from 6.0% in the year to March 2024 and down from 7.4% in July 2023, which was the joint highest rate (with May 2023) since March 1992.

As with the all-items annual inflation rates, the drivers of CPIH and CPI goods and services inflation are the same (with the exception of owner occupiers’ housing costs and Council Tax, which are excluded from CPI). The drivers are discussed in more detail in Section 4: Latest movements in CPIH inflation.

Figure 11 shows how each of the main groups of goods and services contributed to the change in the annual CPI inflation rate between March and April 2024.

The easing in the rate into April 2024 was driven by downward contributions from six divisions, partially offset by small upward contributions from two divisions. The largest downward contributions came from housing and household services, alcohol and tobacco, food and non-alcoholic beverages, recreation and culture, and communication. The smaller, partially offsetting, upward contributions were from restaurants and hotels, and miscellaneous goods and services.

Although the sizes of the contributions differ from CPIH, the main drivers to the change are the same where they are common to both measures.

Figure 12 shows the extent to which the distinct categories of goods and services have contributed to the overall annual CPI inflation rate over the last two years.

The CPIH includes extra housing components not included in the CPI. This can result in the largest contributions to the annual CPI and CPIH inflation rates coming from different divisions. In April 2024, the largest-contributing division was the same, namely restaurants and hotels (0.85 percentage point contribution to the CPI rate) but housing and household services made a large negative contribution to CPI compared with a large positive contribution to CPIH.

Annual inflation rate

The most common approach to measuring inflation is the 12-month or annual inflation rate, which compares prices for the latest month with the same month a year ago. In any given month, the annual rate is determined by the balance between upward and downward price movements of the range of goods and services included in the index.

Consumer price inflation

Consumer price inflation is the rate at which the prices of goods and services bought by households rise or fall. It is estimated by using price indices. For an overview of the range of indices available and their uses, please see our Consumer price indices, a brief guide: 2017 and our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households: December 2023 article.

Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH)

The CPIH is the most comprehensive measure of inflation. It extends the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to include a measure of the costs associated with owning, maintaining and living in one’s own home, known as owner occupiers’ housing costs (OOH), along with Council Tax. Both are significant expenses for many households and are not included in the CPI.

Consumer Prices Index

The CPI is a measure of consumer price inflation produced to international standards and is based on European regulations for the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices. The CPI is the inflation measure used in the government’s target for inflation.

The CPI is produced at the same level of detail as the CPIH in our accompanying dataset and accompanying data time series.

Retail Prices Index (RPI)

The RPI does not meet the required standard for designation as an Accredited Official Statistic. In recognition that it continues to be widely used in contracts, we continue to publish the RPI, its subcomponents and RPI excluding mortgage interest payments (RPIX). To view the all-items RPI, please see the data time series section of the inflation and price indices area of our website. The annual RPI inflation rate was 3.3% in April 2024.

The UK Statistics Authority and HM Treasury launched a consultation in 2020 on The Authority’s proposal to address the shortcomings of the RPI. From 2030 (at the earliest), as outlined in The Authority’s response to the consultation, the CPIH methods and data sources will be introduced into the RPI. Additionally, the supplementary and lower-level indices of the RPI will be discontinued.

Alternative data sources

We are undertaking a programme of transformation across our consumer price statistics, including identifying new sources, improving methods and developing systems. More information about the project and our ongoing transformation plans can be found in our updated Research and developments in the transformation of UK consumer price statistics article, released on 1 December 2023. The latest release includes information on the transformation of consumer price statistics on second-hand cars and private rents, which we introduced with the February 2024 index, and our proposed approach to outlier detection in grocery scanner data.

As usual, we welcome your feedback on our work by email to [email protected].

Weights for 2024 consumer price inflation statistics

In line with usual practice at the start of each year, the expenditure weights used in compiling the consumer price inflation statistics were updated. For the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), they were calculated using national accounts household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE) data for 2022. This is in line with our standard methodology of using data lagged by two years.

It differs from the approach used over the last few years, when there were large changes seen in spending patterns because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Over these years, we adjusted the spending data so that the resulting weights were more reflective of the year immediately before use in consumer price inflation. More information on weights updating is available in our Consumer price inflation, updating weights articles.

The weights for the Retail Prices Index (RPI) were also updated for 2024 in line with the practice followed both before and during the pandemic period, with no additional adjustment to the spending data because of any coronavirus effects.

The weights used to produce the CPI and CPIH have historically been rounded to integers as parts per thousand of the all items indices. From 2024, we are now using unrounded weights in compiling the indices. The RPI continues to be based on integer weights.

Households and the cost of living

To assist individuals in understanding how the rise in inflation affects their expenditure, we have produced a personal inflation calculator. The calculator allows users to enter the amount they spend across either a reduced or a wide range of categories, to produce an estimate of their personal inflation based on those spending patterns.

Our shopping prices comparison tool shows how the average prices of items have changed over time. As a result, the number of average price series in Table 55 in our Consumer price inflation dataset has been reduced to two, covering petrol and diesel, and Table 54 has been discontinued. The average price data originally presented in these tables are currently still available as time series on our website and can be found using the four-character identifiers in Table 55.

On 26 February 2024, we published our quarterly Household Costs Indices (HCIs) for UK household groups bulletin. These are official statistics in development and this release included new estimates for October to December 2023. The HCIs reflect how different types of households experience changing prices and differ from CPIH and CPI, which are based on recognised economic principles and which provide an aggregate measure of inflation for household spending in the UK.

HCI data for January to March 2024 will be published on 30 May 2024. It has not been possible to update the weights in January and February 2024 in line with the standard methodology for consumer prices. This is because of delays in processing the underlying survey data and the need for further ongoing quality assurance. Instead, the most recent estimates will be compiled using the weights for February to December 2023. We expect the underlying survey data to be available in time for our subsequent publication on 28 August 2024; therefore, we will revise at this point to incorporate updated weights back to January 2024.

Consumer price inflation historical estimates, UK, 1950 to 1988

On 18 May 2022, we published our Consumer price inflation, historical estimates, UK, 1950 to 1988 – methodology and Consumer price inflation, historical estimates and recent trends, UK: 1950 to 2022 article. These include new estimates of CPIH and improved estimates of CPI for the period 1950 to 1988. These estimates (published in response to user need for a longer series) are indicative and are for analytical purposes only. They are not intended for official use and do not constitute part of the Accredited Official Statistic series.

Previously, in December 2018, we published our Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) historical series: 1988 to 2004 article. This series is also not an Accredited Official Statistic, reflecting the historical uncertainty around the backcasts.

Methodology information

The consumer price indices are normally based on prices collected from outlets around the country, supplemented by information collected centrally over the internet and by phone. The figures in this publication use data collected on or around 16 April 2024.

Our Consumer price indices, a brief guide gives an overview of consumer price statistics, while our Consumer prices indices technical manual covers the concepts and methodologies underpinning the indices in more detail.

Our CPIH Compendium provides a comprehensive source of information on the CPIH, focusing on the approach to measuring owner occupiers’ housing costs.

Our Users and uses of consumer price inflation statistics: July 2018 update includes information on the users and uses of these statistics, and the characteristics of the different measures of inflation in relation to potential use.

We illustrated our approach to Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households most recently in December 2023 using three “use cases”, and described how they relate to the measures published and under development.

The three cases refer firstly to the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) as our lead measure of inflation based on economic principles. They also refer to the Household Costs Indices (HCIs) as a set of measures that reflect the change in costs and prices experienced by different households, and the Retail Prices Index (RPI) as a legacy measure that is required to meet existing user needs. Our Shortcomings of the RPI as a measure of inflation article describes the issues with the RPI.