LONDON (Reuters) – The British public’s average expectations for inflation over the next 12 months remained at one of its highest levels in the past seven years last month as uncertainty about the outlook rose, a survey showed on Monday.
The Citi/YouGov inflation survey showed year-ahead inflation expectations held at 3.2% in April, unchanged since March and matching a similar peak in August 2019, which was the highest level in the survey since 2013.
“Unusually, this was despite a sharp reduction in oil prices,” Citi economists Benjamin Nabarro and Christian Schulz said in a note to clients.
The proportion of people surveyed who said they did not know where inflation would go over the next 12 months rose to a record 21%, while longer-term inflation expectations dropped to 2.9% from March’s 3.1%.
The survey of 2,070 people was conducted by YouGov on April 24 and April 25.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Toby Chopra)
