The cost of goods leaving Britain's factories, excluding volatile components like petroleum, rose at its fastest in nearly nine years in July, official data showed today, suggesting underlying inflationary pressures are on the way up.
The Office for National Statistics said that "core" output prices, which exclude food, drink, tobacco and petroleum, rose by 0.3 per cent in July, the biggest monthly gain since September 1995 and three times the rate predicted by analysts.
That took the annual rate to 1.6 per cent, its strongest since June 1996.
But unadjusted output prices rose by less than expected in July, gaining by 0.1 per cent on the month and by 2.5 per cent on the year, partly as price rises in manufactured and metal products were offset by a fall in petroleum product prices.
Petroleum product prices fell by 0.9 per cent on the month in July.
Input prices were also weaker than expected, rising by 0.6 per cent on the month.