Inflation continues to ease, but large cost-of-living gap between rich and poor households remains 18 January 2023 Inflation continued to ease towards the end of the year, but remained particularly high for low-income families who continue to fall on the wrong side of a large cost-of-living gap, the Resolution Foundation said today (Wednesday) in response to the latest ONS prices data. CPI inflation fell from 10.7 to 10.5 per cent in December. The biggest downward pressure came from falling petrol prices, while service inflation rose last month. Worryingly, food price inflation accelerated further (reaching 16.9 per cent), and will need to fall back in 2023 to ease the press on low-income families. Resolution Foundation analysis shows that the poorest tenth of families on average experienced an inflation rate of 11.9 per cent compared to 9.2 per cent for the richest tenth of families, with the UK’s ‘cost-of-living gap’ remaining at 2.7 percentage points. Jack Leslie, Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Inflation looks to have peaked last October as it continued to ease at the end of last year. The speed at which inflation falls in 2023 will help to determine the duration of the cost-of-living crisis. “Inflation remains particularly high for low-income families who are on the wrong side of a large cost-of-living gap due to the high cost of energy bills and food.”
