Inflation is beginning to ease more quickly than expected, new estimates from the Office for National Statistics find.
Calculations released on Monday show that the core inflation rate fell to 6.8% in July from 6.9% in June and from a peak of 7.3% in May.
The new modelling indicates that underlying price pressures are easing, as the government battles to halve the headline rate of inflation to about 5% by the end of the year.
Last week, the ONS said that core consumer prices inflation had held steady at 6.9% in July, surprising analysts and the Bank of England.
Headline inflation fell sharply to 6.8% from 7.9%.
The statistics office’s one-off inflation estimate aims to strip out products whose prices fluctuate frequently to provide a “general underlying trend or core inflation rate across the whole economy”. It tracks how closely individual item prices move in response to changes in prices for other products.
Items that follow general price trends can be used as a yardstick for the overall rate of inflation. It is similar to core inflation, which removes volatile food and energy categories and is regarded as a more accurate measurement of price dynamics in an economy.
Restaurant prices over the past decade were the best rule of thumb for the general inflation rate of the British economy, the statistics office said, mainly because they were highly responsive to energy, rent and wage bills. Restaurant prices jumped by about 9% in the year to July.
