UK's consumer price index rises 0.4% in December

UK consumer prices rose at an expected year-on-year pace of 1.3% in December, unchanged from November, Britain's Office of National Statistics has said.

The CPI has remained below the 2.0% rate since May 1998.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI, formerly know as the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), was up 0.4% in December from the previous month, after falling 0.1% in November.

The rise in the CPI was led by higher air fares in December compared with November.

Food and beverage costs were up 0.4% in December from November. Health costs were down 0.7%, while clothing and footwear prices fell 1.2%.

The British office of national statistics pointed out that Finland was the only EU country to have lower rates of inflation than the UK in November.

Austria and Germany were level with the UK at an annual rate of 1.3%.