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After reaching a peak of 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, the CPI inflation rate in the United Kingdom has fallen considerably, and was just two percent in the third quarter of 2024. In 2025, there has been an uptick in inflation, with prices increasing by 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of the year. CPI inflation is, however, expected to fall in the last quarter of 2025 and continue to decline in 2026.

Inflation and the Cost of Living 

The high inflation experienced by the UK since late 2021 is one of the main factors behind the country's ongoing cost of living crisis. Price surges, in relation to food and energy costs in particular, played havoc with the finances of UK households. At the height of the crisis, around nine out of ten households were experiencing a cost of living increase compared to the previous month. Although inflation has eased since reaching a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, and wages are growing in real terms, approximately 63 percent of households were still experiencing rising costs relative to the previous month in October 2025.

Economic growth downgraded for 2025

Since 2022, the economy has generally been one of the main issue for UK voters, seen by 53 percent of people as one of the top three issues facing the country in November 2025. Throughout this time, UK households have struggled through a cost of living crisis, while the wider economy has been unable to achieve consistently strong growth. Since the first quarter of 2022, the UK economy has alternated between periods of low growth and minor contractions, with the UK even in recession at the end of 2023. While there was a slight uptick in growth in 2024, this momentum appears to have already been lost, with the UK's economic growth forecast downgraded from two percent to one percent, at the start of the year.