UK inflation fuel prices have pushed the headline rate to its highest point in five months, with the annual rate climbing to 3.1% in August from 2.9% the month before, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Petrol, diesel and airfares were the main culprits, driven largely by the continuing conflict in the Middle East and its disruption to global oil supplies.Motor fuel prices rose by 23% compared with August last year. Between July and August alone, average petrol prices climbed by 9.1p to reach 161.3p per litre. ‘This is the highest price recorded since November 2022,’ the ONS…
Author: Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke trained as a chartered accountant and spent fourteen years in financial services before starting to write. She qualified at a mid-tier firm, moved in-house to a media company's finance team, and spent her last years as a finance director at a creative agency, which gave her an unusual vantage point on both sides of the balance sheet. She writes about personal finance, tax, pensions, and the money questions people ask at dinner parties but never ask their accountant. She explains numbers without condescension and has no interest in making simple things sound complicated. Helen lives in North London. She files her own tax return on the first day it opens and considers this a character flaw.
UK inflation jumps as fuel costs drive the annual rate to 3.1% in August, its highest point since March, according to figures published by the Bank of England’s data context and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The reading matched what economists had expected, but it landed the day before a closely watched Bank of England interest-rate decision and adds to a cost-of-living picture that has not fully eased since the post-pandemic surge of recent years.Petrol and diesel prices lead the chargeThe ONS said the main driver of August’s rise was motor fuel. Petrol prices climbed by 9.1 pence per…
Oil prices fell on Wednesday as the Saudi pipeline closure sent oil prices lower alongside fresh data showing a sharp rise in US crude inventories, with traders weighing conflicting assessments of how long it will take to restore flows through one of the world’s most heavily used oil arteries.Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped 1.02% to $107.64 a barrel for November delivery. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for October fell 1.29% to $104.46 per barrel.Inventory build adds pressure on top of Saudi pipeline closureThe price falls were partly driven by inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute, cited by…
The Saudi East-West pipeline closure will be short-lived, lasting only days before the vital crude oil conduit reopens, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday. Wright made the comments in Houston, where energy officials from G20 nations are gathered.’This will be a brief and temporary interruption. It will be measured in days,’ Wright told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan, adding that the pipeline would be back in operation ‘very soon’.What happened to the Saudi East-West pipelineSaudi Arabia shut down the pipeline late last week after it sustained damage in drone attacks launched from Iraq. Wright said Iran-backed proxy groups were responsible…
The triple lock pension cost is on course to reach nearly three times its original forecast, new figures show, as the full flat-rate state pension edges above £13,000 a year for the first time following the latest official wage growth data.Average earnings, including bonuses, grew by 3.9% between May and July, according to the Office for National Statistics. That figure, down from 4.2% in the previous three months, is the one the government uses to calculate next April’s state pension increase. Because it outpaces both inflation and the policy’s 2.5% floor, it is wage growth that will drive the rise.The…
The Iran war cost, according to a Pentagon inspector general report released this week, has reached an estimated $33.4 billion as of 29 June, as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi prepares to visit China for talks that carry weight well beyond the bilateral relationship.The US Department of Defense submitted the lead inspector general report to Congress on Monday, covering the conflict through to the end of June. It lays out a sobering picture of material losses: hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases across the Middle East damaged or destroyed, dozens of US aircraft struck, and physical damage to…
The Saudi pipeline drone attack that shut one of the world’s most strategically important oil conduits sent Brent crude close to $108 a barrel on Tuesday, as fresh Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and Iranian military activity in the Gulf stoked fears of a prolonged supply crunch.Brent crude futures for November delivery rose 1.93% to $107.72 per barrel as of 3:10am ET, while US West Texas Intermediate futures for October advanced 1.88% to $103.30 per barrel. The moves came as markets absorbed a string of overlapping disruptions across one of the most oil-sensitive corridors on the planet.The Saudi pipeline drone…
The relationship between oil prices and Treasury yields has tightened to its closest in seven years, heaping pressure on everything from mortgage rates to technology stocks as Middle East conflict reshapes the way shocks travel through financial markets.The one-month rolling correlation between front-month West Texas Intermediate crude and the 10-year Treasury yield has climbed to 0.96, according to BMO Capital Markets. That is the strongest positive relationship since June 2019, and before that October 2014. A reading of 1.0 would mean the two assets move in perfect unison.How Oil Prices and Treasury Yields Got HereThe backdrop is a sharp escalation…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has put forward a Zelenskyy energy ceasefire offer, saying Kyiv would halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure if Moscow agreed to stop attacking Ukraine’s own power grid, energy facilities, critical infrastructure and food supply routes. The proposal, posted on Monday, came after Donald Trump publicly urged Zelenskyy to stop targeting diesel fuel during Trump’s visit to Ireland. Trump said on Sunday that Zelenskyy should ‘let him go after targets but not diesel fuel because he’s causing a shortage of diesel.’ The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Zelenskyy’s subsequent post. Ukraine…
Prediction market traders are placing strong odds on a fresh record for pump prices, with the US gas price forecast for 2026 now pointing well above the year’s current peak, as crude oil climbs past $103 a barrel and tensions over a critical global shipping route remain unresolved. Prices at American petrol stations reached $4.56 per gallon on 21 May, according to AAA’s national average. That peak may not stand for long, if traders on prediction market platform Kalshi are right. They currently place a 71% probability that the national average will surpass $4.60 per gallon before the year is…
