The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reveal that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 9.1% in the 12 months to May 2022, up from 9.0% in April.

This means that CPI is at its highest rate in 40 years.

On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.7% in May 2022, compared with a rise of 0.6% in May 2021.

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 7.9% in the 12 months to May 2022, up from 7.8% in April.

The largest upward contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate in May 2022 came from housing and household services (2.79 percentage points, principally from electricity, gas and other fuels, and owner occupiers’ housing costs) and transport (1.50 percentage points, principally from motor fuels and second-hand cars).

Rising prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, compared with falls a year ago, resulted in the largest upward contribution to the change in both the CPIH and CPI 12-month inflation rates between April and May 2022 (0.17 percentage points for CPIH).

Simon Webb, managing director of capital markets and finance at LiveMore, commented: “Inflation has risen yet again and expected to move to 11% in October when the next energy price cap is set. The Bank of England is under pressure to tighten monetary policy even further and inevitably lift the base rate throughout the rest of this year and potentially into 2023.

“But homeowners can beat inflation by taking out a long-term fixed rate mortgage keeping their payments the same each month while the cost of living goes up. I’m not just talking about five-year fixed rates but fixing for 10 or 20 years or even fixing for the whole life of the mortgage. In a rising interest rate environment, it makes perfect sense to fix.”