Inflation: Milk, cheese and egg prices fall as petrol rises

Official figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show food prices saw their first monthly fall in two years in September, but fuel prices rose sharply. 

The UK’s overall rate of inflation held steady at 6.7% – ending a run of three consecutive monthly falls. 

The price of milk, cheese and eggs all decreased, easing the pressure at supermarket tills, the ONS said.

But petrol rose by 5.1p per litre. 

Analysts had expected the overall rate of inflation to fall slightly, and the ONS said there may be “some disappointment” about the unchanged figure.

However, its chief economist, Grant Fitzner, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you look across Europe, many countries have seen either periods lately of no change or in some cases of actual increases in the headline rate, before they started to resume their falls.”