BRITISH inflation unexpectedly edged back into negative territory last month to match April’s all-time low, after cheaper fuel and clothing pushed down average prices, official figures showed Tuesday.

    The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said consumer price inflation dropped to an annual rate of -0.1 percent, below economists’ expectations for it to hold unchanged at zero, and along with April the lowest reading since March 1960.

    British annual inflation has stuck in a narrow range of -0.1 to +0.1 percent since February, giving a boost to the spending power of consumers just as their earnings have begun to grow more strongly too, boding well for economic growth.

    Unlike policymakers in the eurozone, the Bank of England is relatively unconcerned about the risk of persistent price falls leading to deflation due to robust consumer demand and rising domestic wages.

    However, the weakness in inflation is likely to encourage the central bank to take its time before starting to raise interest rates from their record low.

    Last week the Bank of England said it did not expect inflation to reach 1 percent until next spring — slightly later than it previously thought — and economists are increasingly pushing back earlier predictions that the central bank would start to raise rates in February 2016.

    The central bank has said around three quarters of the shortfall in inflation from its 2 percent target is due to short-run factors such as lower oil prices and a strengthening in sterling.

    An ONS measure of core consumer price inflation — which strips out changes in the price of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco — held at 1 percent compared with economists’ expectations for it to rise slightly.(SD-Agencies)