Listen to the news

Britain had the fastest rate of consumer price index in Western Europe in March after the indicator fell by less than expected, writes Reuters.

Inflation eased to 10.1 per cent in March from 10.4 per cent in February, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), beating economists' expectations of a fall to 9.8 per cent year-on-year base.

UK inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent on an annual basis in October last year.

Despite the drop in March, Britain was the only country in the region to report a double-digit rise in retail prices last month.

The Office for National Statistics also reported that food and soft drink prices rose by 19.1 per cent year-on-year in March - the biggest such increase since August 1977.

Inflation is expected to remain high globally

Last month, the Bank of England said it expected inflation to "decline significantly" in the second quarter, after forecasting March inflation to fall to 9.2 percent.

All this increases the possibility that the central bank of the United Kingdom will undertake a new increase in interest rates, as yesterday 80 percent of economists expected this to happen at its next meeting, BTA reported.

In the Eurozone, inflation in March was 6.9 percent on an annual basis, 2.9 percent in Switzerland and 5 percent in the United States.

inflation