UK producer input prices up 2.2 pct m/m in August

British producer input prices rose at their fastest monthly rate in more than a year in August , driven by oil costs and pushing factory gate inflation slightly higher on the month.

The Office for National Statistics said on Friday producer input prices rose by 2.2 percent in August, more than twice as fast as expected, after falling 1.1 percent the previous month. On the year, input prices were down 7.5 percent.

Factory gate prices were 0.2 percent higher on the month in August versus analysts' expectations of a 0.1 percent increase, an unchanged rate of increase from the previous month. Year on year, producer output prices were 0.4 percent lower.

The figures suggest that next week's consumer price inflation data risks surprising on the upside. Inflation in Britain has been stickier than in many of its trading partners during the economic downturn.

The ONS said monthly rise in input prices mainly reflected a rise in the price of crude oil

The monthly rise in output prices was largely down to price rises in other manufactured products, petroleum and chemical products, partly offset by lower tobacco and alcohol product prices.