UK inflation hits 9%, highest since 1982 as food and energy prices soar

British inflation leapt last month to its highest annual rate since 1982, piling pressure on finance minister Rishi Sunak to step up help for households facing a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Consumer price inflation hit 9% in April, the Office for National Statistics said, surpassing even the peaks of the early 1990s recession that many Britons remember for sky-high interest rates and widespread mortgage defaults.

A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a reading of 9.1%.

Sterling fell after the data and was down by 0.4% against the U.S. dollar.

Soaring energy bills were the biggest driver of price growth in April, reflecting last month’s increase in regulated energy tariffs.