U.K. Inflation Hits Fresh Three-Decade High, Squeezing Household Budgets

The U.K.’s inflation rate rose to a fresh three-decade high in March, as energy prices surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, driving a decline in real incomes that is forecast to be the most severe since the mid-1950s.

Consumer prices were 7% higher in March than a year earlier, a pickup from the 6.2% rate of inflation in February, and the highest since March 1992, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.