Joel Dungate, investment analyst at investment management and stockbroking firm Redmayne-Bentley, said: “The UK inflation rate remained at 2.3 per cent in March, as a decline in air fares due to the timing of Easter helped to offset higher food and clothes prices.
“Therefore, there is an expectation that inflation will rise next month when this timing effect unwinds. However, the Bank of England has signalled that it expects inflation to reach 2.8 per cent during the year, so we can remain almost certain that the Bank won’t act anytime soon in combatting rising inflation.
“The bigger question remains: How will the British consumer react to persistently higher inflation? Figures from the British Retail Consortium showed that non-food retail sales fell sharply in the first-quarter of the year, which suggests that consumers are changing their habits in response to higher prices.”