UK Sept factory gate inflation highest since April

British factory gate inflation unexpectedly turned positive for the first time in five months, with almost all sectors contributing to the rise, official data showed on Friday.

The Office for National Statistics said non seasonally adjsuted output prices rose 0.5 percent on the month in September, taking the annual rate of inflation to 0.4 percent.

That was both the highest reading since April and followed a -0.3 percent rate in August.

Analysts had predicted factory gate inflation would stay negative at a rate of 0.1 percent.

While most sectors had a positive impact on output prices over the month, the ONS said the biggest effect came from petroleum product prices, which were driven up a rise in duty at the start of September.

Annual input price inflation was also the least negative since April, falling by 0.5 percent on the month and by 6.5 percent on the year.

Separately, the ONS said Britain's trade gap with the rest of the world narrowed slightly to 6.240 billion pounds in August from 6.431 billion pounds in July. That was the smallest trade gap since June 2006, but was not significantly lower than the deficits in recent months.