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UK inflation eased for a second month in December, boosting confidence that the cost-of-living crisis has peaked. Consumer prices rose 10.5 per cent in the year through December, down from 10.7 per cent the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. Inflation peaked at a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in October. While the drop is welcome, inflation is still running at levels last seen in the early 1980s. UK prices are also rising faster than in other major industrialised nations. Inflation slowed to 6.5 per cent last month in the US and 9.2 per cent in the 20 countries that use the euro. Inflation soared after Russia's invasion of Ukraine fuelled sharp increases in food and energy prices, eroding savings and living standards. That has triggered a wave of strikes across Britain as nurses, train drivers, border guards and teachers demand pay increases and the government tries to prevent higher wages from triggering a second round of domestically driven ...
Inflation is likely to have reached its peak in 2022 but there is no end in sight for the cost of living crisis, experts said on Tuesday. Speaking at a panel discussion during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 here, they said those on low income and in the developing world will be grappling with high prices for years to come. Gita Gopinath, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said, "we do believe that, in terms of headline inflation for the global economy, we think it peaked in 2022." Participants agreed that inflation is inextricably linked to the cost of living crisis and tackling inflation is key to easing the cost crunch in the long run. However, Gopinath warned, "even if inflation comes down, prices are high because we don't have deflation, we have lower levels of inflation. The prices have gone up. How much of an impact that has had on households and on consumption varies across countries." German Finance Minister Christian Lindner highlig