AFP, London

Britain’s annual inflation rate was unchanged at 3.0 percent in February, official data showed Wednesday ahead of an expected jump as the Middle East war has sent oil prices surging.

At 3.0 percent, unchanged from January, the latest Consumer Prices Index (CPI) reading remains above the Bank of England’s two-percent target.

Market expectations are meanwhile for the BoE to raise interest rates this year to combat the predicted jump to inflation as the US-Israel war with Iran hits key oil and gas supplies.

Reacting to February’s UK inflation reading, Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the Office for National Statistics, said rising clothes prices last month were “offset by falls in petrol costs, with prices collected before the start of the conflict in the Middle East and subsequent rise in crude oil prices”.

Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter, called February’s CPI print “old news”.

“It shows an economy where inflation appeared to be stabilising and was expected to drift towards 2.1 percent in the second quarter.”

James added that “February is likely to represent the low point for UK inflation for some time”.