Fuel and food prices are rising so fast UK inflation hit 30-year high of 7% in March

The figure had been expected to hit 6.7% in the 12 months to March, but it actually shot to 7%

Fuel and food prices are rising so fast that it helped to send UK inflation to another 30-year high even before household energy bills spiked, according to official figures.

The Consumer Prices Index inflation - which looks at the cost of goods and services bought by households - went up by 7 per cent in the year up to March, the national statisics body said.

This was the highest level seen since the early 1990s, when infation peaked at 7.1 per cent.

It continues a trend of UK inflation hitting 30-year record highs each month, including 6.2 per cent in February, 5.5 per cent in January and 5.4 per cent last December.

But these levels were trumped by the figures for March, which were released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday.

The rise was higher than the 6.7 per cent analysts had expected and was driven by rising fuel, restaurant and food prices.

The CPI including owner occupied housing costs also rose sharply last month, with the ONS putting the figure at 6.2 per cent in the 12 months to March. This was compared to 5.5 per cent in February.

Rising electricity and gas bills were helping to drive this increase, according to the ONS.

However, the March figures did not even take into account the average 54 per cent increase in energy bills that came into force for millions of households at the start of this month.

This will not appear in inflation figures until next month, when April’s data is expected to show another jump in inflation and demonstrate the increased squeeze on ordinary people during the cost-of-living crisis.

Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS, said: “Broad-based price rises saw annual inflation rise steeply again in March. Amongst the largest increases were petrol costs, with prices mostly collected before the recent cut in fuel duty, and furniture.”

The Bank of England has predicted that inflation could peak at around 8 per cent in April.

Last month, a spending watchdog warned Britons were looking at the biggest fall in living standards on record as inflation stunts both buying power and economic growth.