UK inflation drops to 2.8% Britain's annual inflation rate dropped unexpectedly to 2.8 per cent last month, the lowest since late 2009, helping to pave the way for the central bank to restart quantitative easing to stimulate the economy. The fall in inflation was driven by a decline in food price inflation and a fall in the price of fuel. Economists had expected annual inflation as measured by the consumer price index to remain unchanged at 3 per cent. Last week, Sir Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, hinted that the central bank would restart its gilt purchase programme, also known as quantitative easing, as he revealed other measures aimed at unblocking credit to the real economy. Vicky Redwood, an economist at Capital Economics, said: "Mervyn King's comments last week indicated that more QE will soon be forthcoming and these figures might help to sway any of the more wavering members into voting for more stimulus." Consumer prices actually fell slightly between April and May, the first time on record this has happened between these two months. Britain's economy has been hampered in the past few years by high inflation that has outstripped wage growth and constrained consumer spending. Though inflation has fallen sharply since its September peak of 5.2 per cent, the Bank of England revised its forecasts in May and predicted CPI inflation would remain above its 2 per cent target for another year. Inflation measured by the alternative retail price index, which includes a measure of mortgage costs, fell from 3.5 per cent in April to 3.1 per cent in May. Food prices rose 0.3 per cent between April and May this year compared with a rise of 1.3 per cent between the same two months a year ago, driven by smaller increases in the price of fruit, vegetables and mineral waters, soft drinks and juices. Meanwhile, the price of fuel and lubricants dropped 3.1 per cent between April and May as global prices of crude oil declined. Petrol prices fell 4.5p a litre to £1.37 a litre while diesel prices fell by 4.4p a litre to £1.43 a litre. Chris Williamson, an economist at Markit, said: "Unfortunately, the drop in inflationary pressures is principally the result of very weak global demand, and an increasingly bleak looking economic outlook. Slower global growth has caused oil prices to fall by around one-quarter since their peak earlier this year, with prices also falling for a wide variety of other commodities.