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British inflation edged up higher in October, as transport prices fell less than expected and the cost of toys rose prior to Christmas.
But economists here reckon that the bounce of inflation rate is temporary, the downward trend of price has not been reversed.
Price inches up
Britain's consumer prices index (CPI) grew by 1.3 percent in the year to October 2014, up from the 1.2 percent in July, said Office for National Statistics (ONS) Tuesday.
Smaller falls in transport costs than a year ago - notably for motor fuels and air fares, and price rises for computer games were the main contributors to the rise in the rate of inflation, said ONS.
In the year to October 2014, food prices dropped by 1.6 percent and prices of fuels fell by 4.8 percent, data showed.
British consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in October from the previous month, and the core annual inflation rate, which exclude alcohol, tobacco, food and energy prices, rose 1.5 percent on year-on-year basis, said ONS.
CPIH, an inflation gauge include consumer prices and owner occupier's housing costs, increased 1.3 percent in the 12-month to October 2014, up from 1.2 percent in September, data also showed.
Downward trend
Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, commented in a note: "October's uptick in inflation is largely a function of base effects and movements in volatile categories. Otherwise, the inflationary trend is downward and there is a good chance that the CPI measure will drop back again over the next couple of months."
The London-based economic forecaster expects that the CPI will dip down below 1 percent in the early months of 2015, and the mind-set of the majority of the central bank's policy makers will become more dovish.
Samuel Tombs, Senior UK Economist at Capital Economics, also said in an analysis piece: "The slight rise in UK CPI inflation in October seems likely to be just a blip in its downward trend."
The London-based economic research company projects that the inflation rate could fall to as low as 1 percent by the end of this year and will remain below the 2 percent target in 2015.
"As such, low inflation will provide further support to households' real incomes at a time when other sources of support for the economic recovery are fading and should enable the Bank of England to raise interest rates only gradually over the next couple of years," added Tombs.
