![\"UK](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00241e46-614.jpg\"\/)
\nThe UK’s new finance minister John Healey<\/p>\n
UK inflation fell to the lowest rate in 15 months in June as food and fuel prices dropped in an early boost to the cost-of-living-focused new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. <\/p>\n
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was 2.6% in June, down from 2.8% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). <\/p>\n
This was the lowest level since March 2025, and also came in below the 2.7% rate that most economists had been expecting. <\/p>\n
The lower-than-expected CPI rate is set to provide some relief to new Prime Minister Andy Burnham who has made efforts to ease the cost of living a top priority. <\/p>\n
According to the ONS, the biggest downward pull on overall inflation last month came from transport, food and non-alcoholic drinks. <\/p>\n
Average petrol prices declined by 2.1 pence a litre between May and June, while diesel prices dropped by 10.7 pence a litre. <\/p>\n
This marked the first time petrol had eased since the start of the Middle East conflict at the end of February, which sent oil and gas prices soaring and pushed up prices at the pumps. <\/p>\n
However, while prices were lower month-on-month, overall motor fuel prices remained 21.3% higher in the year to June in a sign that the conflict has driven up the cost of living in the UK. <\/p>\n
Food and non-alcoholic drink prices fell by 0.2% between May and June, bringing the annual inflation rate down to 1.7%, from 2.2% in May. <\/p>\n
“A fall in motor fuel prices, particularly diesel, helped ease inflation in June,” ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said. <\/p>\n
“Food prices fell this month, driven by products including chocolate, margarine and beef. Clothing prices also fell with the start of summer sales, with bigger discounts than last year,” he said. <\/p>\n
“The cost of raw materials dipped for the first time since January, mainly due to the lower price of crude oil, while the increase in the costs of goods leaving factories slowed again,” he added.<\/p>\n
“Falling inflation is news families want to hear but there is much more to do to give people the breathing space they need,” newly appointed Chancellor John Healey said. <\/p>\n
\nThe UK’s new finance minister John Healey<\/p>\n
“That is why yesterday we cut VAT on electricity bills and today we’re announcing a \u00a32 cap on bus fares from January. We have chosen to focus on the cost of living in our first week, signalling that concern for working people will be at the heart of everything we do,” he said. <\/p>\n
“Both these changes are a win-win. They help keep inflation down while helping people afford the essentials,” he added. <\/p>\n
Mr Burnham and Mr Healey announced earlier this week that electricity bills will be VAT-free from October 1, saving households about \u00a345 a year. <\/p>\n
Cutting VAT from 5% to 0% is estimated to reduce CPI inflation by around 0.1 percentage points when it comes into effect, according to the UK government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK inflation fell to the lowest rate in 15 months in June as food and fuel prices dropped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-562249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}