Martin Lewis says inflation drop to 7.9% could help people coming to end of mortgage fix

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Martin Lewis has dubbed the latest inflation figure ‘good news’ after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation for June was 7.9%, down from 8.7% in May and its lowest rate since March 2022.The consumer champion told Good Morning Britain (GMB) viewers that even though the inflation drop won’t make that much difference to the money in people’s packets, in terms of economic impact and pressure on borrowers, it should relieve some of that pressure.Co-hosting GMB with Susanna Reid in his regular ‘Wallet Wednesday’ presenting slot, Martin said: “The crucial core inflation figures, which is what drove mortgage fix rates to go up last month, was 7.1%, but that has dropped to 6.9%, that will be a strong signal I suspect - markets can always read these differently so that’s not a promise - but that looks like this is good news.”He added: “That looks like it will take pressure off interest rate rises and hopefully we will see a positive response from the market, but you can never truly judge the market.“For the first time in a long time, we’re seeing better than expected inflation figures.”Most economists had expected the rate of inflation to fall to 8.2% in June.

The ONS said falling fuel prices was the biggest driver behind the drop, while food price inflation also pared back to 17.3% from 18.7% in May, though still painfully high.ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said: “Inflation slowed substantially to its lowest annual rate since March 2022, driven by price drops for motor fuels.

Meanwhile, core inflation also fell back after hitting a 30-year high in May.“Food price inflation eased slightly this month, although it remains at very high levels.“Although costs facing