A better than expected UK inflation report propelled the FTSE 100 to its best week since January. Elsewhere, performance amongst international stock markets was mixed as investors await this week’s interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan.
The Office for National Statistics revealed on Wednesday that annual UK consumer price inflation slowed to 7.9% in June, down from 8.7% in May, in a large part due to falling petrol and diesel costs. Food and non-alcohol price inflation slowed to 17.3%.
The core inflation rate, which excludes more volatile items such as food and energy, also slowed more than expected to 6.9%. Although headline inflation is running at four times the Bank of England’s 2% target rate, the report provides some hope that than painful interest rate hiking cycle is now making an impact and inflation is trending in the right direction.
TEAM plc (LON:TEAM) is building a new wealth, asset management and complementary financial services group. With a focus on the UK, Crown Dependencies and International Finance Centres, the strategy is to build local businesses of scale around TEAM’s core skill of providing investment management services.