Consumer price inflation rose from 3.1% in August to 3.5% in September 2026, the highest rate since October 2025, with both goods and services prices rising faster.
The Consumer Prices Index rose sharply from 3.1% in August, with both goods and services prices accelerating and the rate sitting 1.5 percentage points above the government’s 2% target.
UK consumer price inflation reached 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to September 2026, the highest annual rate since October 2025, according to figures posted by the Office for National Statistics. That’s higher than France’s 3.4 per cent and Germany’s 3.3 per cent over the same period.
The figures show a sharp upward move from 3.1 per cent in August, with CPI rising 0.4 per cent between August and September alone — compared with little change over the same period in 2025. CPI inflation has now risen for three months in a row, from 2.6 per cent in June to 2.9 per cent in July, 3.1 per cent in August, and now 3.5 per cent in September.
Both goods and services drove the increase. CPI goods inflation rose from 2.7 per cent to 3.2 per cent, while services inflation moved from 3.4 per cent to 3.7 per cent. Core CPI — which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco — also ticked up, from 2.6 per cent to 2.8 per cent.
The broader CPIH measure, which includes owner-occupiers’ housing costs, came in at 3.6 per cent for September, up from 3.3 per cent in August.