According to the Office for National Statistics, rising food prices and household energy bills pushed British inflation to a 41-year high. The data was published a day before finance minister Jeremy Hunt announced tax hikes and expenditure cuts to control price growth.

The data further said that consumer prices increased 11.1 per cent in the 12 months to October, the maximum since 1981 and a giant leap from 10.1 per cent in September.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast inflation to rise to 10.7 per cent.

The ONS said that inflation would have grown to around 13.8 per cent in October had the government of the day not intervened to control the price of household energy bills to 2,500 pounds (USD 2,960) a year on average. In response to the data, Hunt said that tough but necessary decisions are required to tackle increasing prices.

Inflationary pressures from UK’s tight labour market had been under-estimated. It is expected that the BoE would hike rates to 4.5 per cent from current 3.0 per cent.