–UK Petrol Prices Up 1.0% On Month In February
–Petrol To Add Just 0.01pp To UK Feb y/y CPI Change
LONDON (MNI) – Surging oil prices are making headlines again but
the impact of petrol prices on February consumer prices looks set to be
negligible.
Petrol price inflation decelerated in February, with prices up 1.0%
on the month, having risen 4.4% in January, according to the Market News
Petrol Price Index.
This move will, if replicated in the official data, contribute a
mere 0.01 percentage point to the change to the CPI 12-month rate in
February. This is because petrol prices rose a similar amount, namely
0.8%, in the same month a year ago.
Further increases in petrol prices on the back of rising oil prices
due to the turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa could well impact
the March CPI data, but there was no dramatic impact on CPI in February.
The Market News Petrol Price Index reflects the fact National
Statistics uses a monthly average for CPI fuel prices.
The Market News Index is based on average monthly data supplied by
Experian, with weights for various petrol categories, such as unleaded
and super unleaded, obtained from the Department of Energy and Climate
Change’s Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES).
The correlation between the MNI index and the moves in the fuels
and lubricants category in the official CPI data, has been fairly
close in recent months.
The February consumer price data will be published on March 22.
Below are the results of the MNI petrol price index:
% change m/m 2011 2010
! Feb ! Jan ! Dec ! Nov ! Oct ! Sep !
————————————————————————
MNI PETROL PRICE INDEX 1.0 4.9 2.7 1.5 2.1 -0.7
ONS FUELS/LUBRICANTS n/a 4.4 2.8 1.6 1.8 -0.8
MNI Index Contribution
to CPI y/y Change 0.01 0.11 0.1 -0.05 0.11 -0.12
ONS F/L Contribution
to CPI y/y Change n/a 0.09 0.1 -0.04 0.10 -0.13
—London Bureau; Tel: +44207 862 7491; email: drobinson@marketnews.com
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