UK’s Sunak declines to specify exact inflation target

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declined to specify on Thursday exactly how he should be judged against one of his key pledges to halve inflation this year, which looks harder to meet than when it was first made.

“I think that everyone can see what inflation was when we made that announcement in January, when we had the numbers I think for December last year,” he had.

When Sunak made his pledge on Jan. 4, the most recently published consumer price inflation data was for November, when it was 10.7%. In December, inflation was 10.5%, which would imply a slightly lower target.

Sunak suggested the difference was unimportant.

“Do I think that everyone sitting at home is focusing on whether inflation goes down to 5.2%, 5.4% or 5.3%? No I don’t. What I think they want to know is that the government is committed to easing the burden on their cost of living,” he told a news conference.

The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it expected British inflation to fall to around 5.25% by the end of the year. Inflation was 8.7% in May.

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