UK inflation rate improves to 3.2 percent

Economists in the United Kingdom are hoping consumer price inflation has peaked and that the country's central bank will make significant cuts in interest rates in the coming weeks, after the latest official figures showed Consumer Price Index, or CPI, had fallen from 3.6 percent in October to 3.2 percent in November.

The better-than-expected performance was largely due to lower prices for alcohol, clothing, and food, the Office for National Statistics, or ONS, said on Wednesday. It added that inflation is now at its lowest level for eight months.

Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS, said the cost of biscuits, breakfast cereals, and cakes fell sharply in November and that there were smaller downward contributions from chocolate, dairy products, jam, and sugar.

"Tobacco prices also helped pull the rate down, with prices easing slightly this month after a large rise a year ago," Fitzner said. "The fall in the price of women's clothing was another downward driver."

The cost of furniture, hotel stays, restaurant meals, and transport all also increased less quickly or fell slightly during November.

Sky News said one of the main reasons food prices fell last month was a supermarket price war that broke out in the run-up to the Christmas holiday season.

Fitzner added that the increase in the cost of goods leaving factories also slowed in November, "driven by lower food inflation", but that the annual cost of raw materials for businesses continued to rise.

Many analysts are hoping the UK's central bank, the Bank of England, will cut interest rates on Thursday, when its Monetary Policy Committee meets for its regular review of interest rates. Among them, London Stock Exchange Group data shows more than 90 percent of financial market participants believe the bank will cut the central interest rate from 4 percent to 3.75 percent.

The UK's finance minister, Rachel Reeves, said families would welcome the fall in the rate of inflation and that she will try to improve the situation further.

"Getting bills down is my top priority," she said. "That is why I froze rail fares and prescription fees (for medicine) and cut 150 pounds ($200) off average energy bills at the budget this year."

Reeves added that the Bank of England agrees that measures she took in the budget on Nov 26 "will help cut prices and expect inflation to fall faster next year as a result".

Core inflation, another measure calculated by the ONS, which removes volatile elements including food and energy from the CPI inflation rate, also eased more than expected, dropping from 3.4 percent to 3.2 percent, and services inflation edged down, from 4.5 percent to 4.4 percent.

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