UK inflation rises to 3.3% in March as Iran conflict impacts fuel prices

Unsurprisingly, motor fuels made the largest upward contribution to the monthly change in the CPI rates, with transport rising from 2.4% in February to 4.7% in March, as the impact of conflict in the Middle East begins to feed through into economic data. Core CPI – which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco – came in at 3.1% in the 12 months to March 2026, down from 3.2% in the 12 months to February. Michael Metcalfe, head of macro strategy at State Street Markets, said the jump in headline inflation "was worse than feared" in March, with scrapped web prices suggesting more bad ...