Flooring inflation surging again
September 14, 2022
Last month's easing of retail inflation in the carpets and rugs sector has been turned on its head in the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The inflation rate rose from 4.9% for carpets in July to 7% for August.
However there was a small moderation in the high inflation figures for smooth flooring which were running at 16.9% in July and have come off almost 2% to 15.1%.
Smooth flooring has been excessively affected by increases in raw material costs and logistics issues for imports so the small downward trend will be welcomed as a sign that part of that situation is easing for suppliers.
Overall retail inflation in the flooring sector was up from 6.4% to 8.1% while in the furniture sector overall, inflation is still running very high at 15.6%.
The data is part of today's overall consumer price index which actually fell back for the first time in almost a year from last month high of 10.1% to a figure for August of 9 .9% – reduction due in large part to a fall in fuel prices.
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