Too soon to conclude inflation won’t become more persistent

It’s too soon to conclude that the weak tone of this week’s news on activity means that inflation won’t become more persistent. Our proprietary measure of underlying/persistent CPI inflation rose to a new record high in May. And the flurry of higher pay settlements across the economy suggests that high inflation is feeding into faster wage growth. This may not necessarily be enough to prompt the Bank of England to start raising interest rates in 50 basis point steps. But we still think that rates will need to rise from 1.25% to 3.00% to tame inflation.