Consumer price inflation, UK: March 2025

• The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 3.7% in the 12 months to February.
• On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.3% in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in March 2024.
• The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.6% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 2.8% in the 12 months to February.
• On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.3% in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in March 2024.
• The largest downward contributions to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates came from recreation and culture, and motor fuels, with a further large downward effect in CPIH from housing and household services; the largest, partially offsetting, upward contribution came from clothing.
• Core CPIH (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 4.2% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 4.4% in the 12 months to February; the CPIH goods annual rate eased from 0.8% to 0.6%, while the CPIH services annual rate slowed from 5.7% to 5.4%.
• Core CPI (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to March 2025, down slightly from 3.5% in the 12 months to February; the CPI goods annual rate eased from 0.8% to 0.6%, while the CPI services annual rate slowed from 5.0% to 4.7%.

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 3.7% in the 12 months to February (Figure 1).

On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.3% in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in March 2024.

The owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs component of CPIH rose by 7.2% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 7.5% in the 12 months to February. OOH costs rose by 0.4% on the month, compared with a 0.6% increase a year earlier.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.6% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 2.8% in the 12 months to February.

On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.3% in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% in March 2024.

The main drivers of the annual inflation rate for CPIH and CPI are the same where they are common to both measures. However, the OOH component accounts for approximately 17% of the CPIH and is the main driver for differences between the CPIH and CPI inflation rates. This makes CPIH our most comprehensive measure of inflation. We cover this in more detail in Section 4: Latest movements in CPIH inflation and provide a commentary on the CPI in Section 5: Latest movements in CPI inflation. We also cover both CPIH and CPI in Section 3: Notable movements in prices, though the figures reflect CPIH.

Figure 2 shows the contributions from the 12 divisions to the change in the annual Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) inflation rate between February and March 2025. These sum to the change in the annual rate between the latest two months, that is, the easing from 3.7% to 3.4%.

The slowing in the rate into March 2025 reflected downward contributions from seven divisions, partially offset by upward contributions from two divisions. The largest downward contributions came from recreation and culture, housing and household services, transport, and restaurants and hotels. The only large upward contribution came from clothing and footwear.

Recreation and culture

Overall prices in the recreation and culture division rose by 2.4% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 3.4% in the 12 months to February. The rate in March was the lowest observed since October 2021, when it was also 2.4% (Figure 3). On a monthly basis, prices were unchanged in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.9% a year ago.

The slowing in the annual rate was the result of relatively small downward effects from a variety of the more detailed classes. The largest came from games, toys and hobbies, and from data processing equipment, where prices fell this year but rose a year ago.

Housing and household services

The 12-month inflation rate for housing and household services was 5.1% in March 2025, down from 5.3% in February. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.2% in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.4% a year ago.

There was a downward effect from owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs, which rose by 7.2% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 7.5% in the 12 months to February.

Transport

Overall prices in the transport division rose by 1.2% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 1.8% in the 12 months to February. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.1% in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% a year ago.

The slowing in the annual rate reflected a large downward effect from motor fuels. The average price of petrol fell by 1.6 pence per litre between February and March 2025 to stand at 137.5 pence per litre, down from 144.8 pence per litre in March 2024. Diesel prices also fell by 1.6 pence per litre in March 2025 to stand at 144.8 pence per litre, down from 154.1 pence per litre in March 2024. These movements resulted in overall motor fuel prices falling by 5.3% in the 12 months to March 2025, compared with a fall of 2.5% in the 12 months to February.

Restaurants and hotels

The 12-month inflation rate for restaurants and hotels was 3.0% in March 2025, down from 3.4% in February. The 12-month rate in March was the lowest observed since July 2021, when it was 2.2% (Figure 4). The easing in the rate between February and March 2025 was caused by a downward contribution to change from accommodation services, where prices rose this year by less than a year ago.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages

Food and non-alcoholic beverages prices rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 3.3% in the 12 months to February. There was a small downward effect from confectionery, where prices fell this year but rose a year ago. This was partially offset by a small upward effect from milk, cheese and eggs, where prices rose this year but fell a year ago.

On a monthly basis, food and non-alcoholic beverages prices were unchanged in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.2% in March 2024.

Clothing and footwear

The overall easing in the inflation rate was partially offset by an upward effect from clothing and footwear. Prices rose by 1.1% in the 12 months to March 2025, compared with a fall of 0.6% in the 12 months to February (Figure 5). The rise in the rate partially reverses the easing seen between January and February.

On a monthly basis, prices rose by 2.3% in March 2025, compared with a rise of 0.6% a year ago. Prices usually rise in March as spring fashions continue to enter the shops, and the increase this year was relatively large, following an unusual fall in prices into February. The price movements between January and March this year reflected changes in the proportion of discounted prices in the datasets. This proportion rose between January and February 2025, whereas it has historically fallen between these months. The proportion then fell by more than is usual into March 2025.

The rise in the annual rate was mainly the result of a large upward effect from garments, principally from women’s clothing.

Figure 6 shows the 12-month inflation rates for the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) series for all goods and all services, together with CPIH excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco (often referred to as core CPIH). The CPIH inflation rate is added for comparison.

The CPIH all services index rose by 5.4% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 5.7% in the 12 months to February. There were large downward contributions to the change in the annual rate from housing services, principally from owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs; and from package holidays and accommodation.

The CPIH all goods index rose by 0.6% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 0.8% in the 12 months to February. The largest downward contributions to the change in the annual rate came from recreational goods and energy, partially offset by an upward contribution from clothing and footwear goods.

The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 4.2% in March 2025, down from 4.4% in February.

Figure 7 shows the extent to which the distinct categories of goods and services have contributed to the overall annual CPIH inflation rate over the last two years. The contribution of each category to the annual rate depends on the price movement in that category as well as its weight, which is updated annually.

The contributions from all divisions to the annual CPIH inflation rate were positive in March 2025. The largest came from housing and household services, and restaurants and hotels.

The contribution from housing and household services eased from 1.57 to 1.51 percentage points between February and March 2025. The contribution from restaurants and hotels also eased from 0.40 to 0.35 percentage points. This was the smallest contribution from this division since January 2022.

Figure 8 shows the contributions from owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs and Council Tax to the annual CPIH inflation rate in the context of wider housing-related costs. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) differs from the CPIH because it does not include these two components.

The annual contribution from OOH slowed for a second month, from 1.31 percentage points in January 2025, to 1.23 in February, and 1.19 in March. It had previously risen for 13 consecutive months to January 2025. OOH was the main driver of the reduced contribution from housing and household services to the annual CPIH inflation rate in March 2025.

While the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) is our lead and most comprehensive measure of consumer price inflation, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) is based on a harmonised methodology developed by Eurostat. This enables international comparisons to be drawn. More information on the use cases for our consumer price inflation statistics can be found in our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households: December 2023 article.

Figure 9 shows annual CPI inflation for the UK compared with the European Union (EU) average and selected Group of Seven (G7) countries. While the UK CPI is produced on a comparable basis with EU countries, the United States Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) differs in some respects (see Footnote 1 to Figure 9). The UK’s CPI inflation rate of 2.6% was above the first (or “flash”) estimate of inflation for France (0.9%) and Germany (2.3%) in the 12 months to March 2025.

Figure 10 shows the 12-month inflation rates for the CPI all goods and all services series, together with CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco (often referred to as core CPI). The headline CPI inflation rate is added for comparison.

The CPI all services index rose by 4.7% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 5.0% in the 12 months to February. The CPI all goods index rose by 0.6% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 0.8% in the 12 months to February. Core CPI rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to March 2025, down slightly from 3.5% in the 12 months to February.

As with the all-items annual inflation rates, the drivers of CPIH and CPI goods and services inflation are the same (with the exception of owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs and Council Tax, which are excluded from CPI). The drivers are discussed in more detail in Section 4: Latest movements in CPIH inflation.

Figure 11 shows how each of the main groups of goods and services contributed to the change in the annual CPI inflation rate between February and March 2025.

The easing in the rate into March 2025 reflected downward contributions from seven divisions, partially offset by upward contributions from three divisions. The largest downward contribution came from recreation and culture. The largest, partially offsetting, upward contribution came from clothing and footwear.

Although the sizes of the contributions differ from CPIH, the main drivers to the change are the same where they are common to both measures.

Figure 12 shows the extent to which the distinct categories of goods and services have contributed to the overall annual CPI inflation rate over the last two years.

The CPIH includes extra housing components not included in the CPI. This can result in the largest contributions to the annual CPI and CPIH inflation rates coming from different divisions. In March 2025, the largest-contributing division to CPI was restaurants and hotels (0.43 percentage point contribution to the CPI rate) whereas the largest-contributing division to CPIH was housing and household services (1.51 percentage points to the CPIH rate). OOH costs had a large upward contribution to housing and household services in CPIH but are excluded from CPI.

Annual inflation rate

The most common approach to measuring inflation is the 12-month or annual inflation rate, which compares prices for the latest month with the same month a year ago. In any given month, the annual rate is determined by the balance between upward and downward price movements across the range of goods and services included in the index.

Consumer price inflation

Consumer price inflation is the rate at which the prices of goods and services bought by households rise or fall. It is estimated by using price indices. For an overview of the range of indices available and their uses, please see our Consumer price indices, a brief guide: 2017 and our Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households: December 2023 article.

CPIH

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) is the most comprehensive measure of inflation. It extends the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to include a measure of the costs associated with owning, maintaining and living in one’s own home, known as owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs, along with Council Tax. Both are significant expenses for many households and are not included in the CPI.

CPI

The CPI is a measure of consumer price inflation produced to international standards, and is based on European regulations for the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). The CPI is the inflation measure used in the government’s target for inflation.

The CPI is produced at the same level of detail as the CPIH in our accompanying dataset and accompanying data time series.

Owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs

OOH costs are the costs of housing services associated with owning, maintaining and living in one’s own home.

RPI

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) does not meet the required standard for designation as an accredited official statistic. In recognition that it continues to be widely used in contracts, we continue to publish the RPI, its subcomponents, and RPI excluding mortgage interest payments (RPIX). To view the all-items RPI, please see the data time series section of the Inflation and price indices area of our website. The annual RPI inflation rate was 3.2% in March 2025.

The UK Statistics Authority (The Authority) and HM Treasury launched a consultation in 2020 on The Authority’s proposal to address the shortcomings of the RPI. From 2030 (at the earliest), as outlined in The Authority’s response to the consultation, the CPIH methods and data sources will be introduced into the RPI. Additionally, the supplementary and lower-level indices of the RPI will be discontinued.

Alternative data sources

We are undertaking a programme of transformation across our consumer price statistics, including identifying new sources, improving methods and developing systems. Our Transformation of consumer price statistics: August 2024 article, published on 6 August 2024, contains more information about the project and our ongoing transformation plans. We also published our Consumer prices development plan: updated August 2024 to outline the rationale for our priorities and their potential impact.

As part of the development, from the 26 March 2025 publication of the February 2025 figures, we have introduced improved imputation methods, consumption segments, and improved Northern Ireland private rental price statistics. These changes will also be introduced into the Household Costs Indices from February 2025 (to be published on 29 May 2025). We have published an Impact analysis on transformation of UK consumer price statistics: January 2025 to provide users with indicative impacts of the improvements from January 2019 to June 2024.

As usual, we welcome your feedback on our work. To contact us, please email cpi@ons.gov.uk.

Moving from sample items to broader consumption segments

The “All items” Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) series incorporate price information from a wide range of goods and services. From March 2025, the process for aggregating this detailed information has changed, as a necessary step towards incorporating larger and more granular datasets into the consumer price indices.

Goods and services are allocated into “consumption segments” for different categories of expenditure. In some cases, we have currently defined these consumption segments to correspond to one “item” for which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) tracks prices over time. However, in cases where more comprehensive source data are available, or are expected to be available in the future, a consumption segment typically includes much more than just one item. For simplicity, we continue to refer to “items” in the statistical bulletin and detailed briefing note. More detailed methodological information is available in our Consumer Prices Indices Technical Manual, 2019.

Please note that the move from sample items to broader consumption segments means there is an impact on the individual price quotes and lower-level indices published from March 2025 in our Consumer price inflation consumption segment indices and price quotes dataset. These outputs have been updated and presented in an improved format to help users transition to the use of consumption segments and other methodological changes.

We have published an updated glossary (XLSX, 25KB) which sets out the changes made from March 2025.

Households and the cost of living

To assist individuals in understanding how the rise in inflation affects their expenditure, we have produced a personal inflation calculator. The calculator allows users to enter the amount they spend across either a reduced or a wide range of categories, to produce an estimate of their personal inflation based on those spending patterns.

Our Shopping prices comparison tool shows how the average prices of items have changed over time. Please note that the newly introduced consumption segments for food, drinks and tobacco will not have data before 2025 in the tool. However, the historical average prices for food, drinks and tobacco items, that were on the tool before the update in 2025, can be found in our Shopping prices comparison tool data download before the 2025 update.

Please also note that table 55 in our Consumer price inflation tables dataset, which provided a time series of prices for petrol and diesel, has not been published from 26 March and the two series have been discontinued. Historic average prices are still available from the time series explorer function on our website using the four-character identifiers CZMK for petrol and CZML for diesel.

On 27 February 2025, we published our quarterly Household Costs Indices (HCIs) for UK household groups bulletin. The HCIs reflect how different types of households experience changing prices, and differ from CPIH and CPI. The CPIH and CPI are based on recognised economic principles, and provide an aggregate measure of inflation for household spending in the UK.

The HCIs are official statistics in development and this release included new estimates for October to December 2024. It was not possible for this latest release to update the weights for 2024 in line with the standard methodology for consumer prices. This is because of delays in processing the underlying survey data and the need for further ongoing quality assurance. Instead, the most recent estimates have been compiled using the weights for February to December 2023. We aim to update the weights in 2025.

Passenger transport by air

While we previously published a monthly index for passenger transport by air, from 26 March 2025, we are also publishing domestic, European and long-haul airfares consumer prices sub-indices and weights on an annual basis. These are being released in the user requested data section of our website.

Classification Of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP)

The Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) is the classification that underpins some of the main statistics produced by the ONS. The classification has seen a substantial update (PDF, 2.51MB) in recent years, to reflect changes in household expenditure patterns since its inception in the late 1990s. The UK currently uses the version of COICOP introduced in 1999.

We will ensure that the new classification is implemented in a comprehensive and reliable manner that considers other ONS priorities around the transformation of our main statistics. To meet this objective, we will aim to introduce the new classification (COICOP 2018) as soon as possible, as part of our wider plans to implement the updated System of National Accounts (SNA25). However, this is likely to be later than the date for implementation in some other countries. We will share our implementation plan as soon as we can.

For further information, please email cpi@ons.gov.uk.

Weights for 2025 consumer price inflation statistics

In line with usual practice at the start of each year, the expenditure weights used in compiling the CPIH and CPI were calculated using updated spending information. The first update of weights was implemented with the January indices. The second update was introduced, along with the usual basket update, with the February indices released in March. We published Consumer price inflation, updating weights: 2025 and Consumer price inflation basket of goods and services: 2025 on 18 March 2025.

The 2025 weights for CPIH and CPI were calculated using national accounts household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE) data for 2023. This is in line with our standard methodology of using data lagged by two years. It differs from the approach used in 2021, 2022 and 2023, when there were large changes seen in spending patterns because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Over those years, we adjusted the spending data so that the resulting weights were more reflective of the year immediately before use in consumer price inflation. More information is available in our Consumer price inflation, updating weights articles.

The weights for the Retail Prices Index (RPI) were also updated for 2025 in line with the practice followed both before and during the pandemic period. This was with no additional adjustment to the spending data because of any coronavirus effects.

In line with the improvements introduced last year, we now use unrounded weights in compiling CPIH and CPI. The weights prior to 2024 for the CPI and CPIH were rounded to integers as parts per thousand of the all-items indices at the class level (4-digit COICOP). The RPI continues to be based on integer weights.

Consumer price inflation historical estimates, UK, 1950 to 1988

On 18 May 2022, we published our Consumer price inflation, historical estimates, UK, 1950 to 1988 – methodology and Consumer price inflation, historical estimates and recent trends, UK: 1950 to 2022 article. These include new estimates of CPIH and improved estimates of CPI for the period 1950 to 1988. These estimates (published in response to user need for a longer series) are indicative and are for analytical purposes only. They are not intended for official use and do not constitute part of the accredited official statistics series.

Previously, in December 2018, we published our Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) historical series: 1988 to 2004 article. This series is also not an accredited official statistic, reflecting the historical uncertainty around the backcasts.

Methodology information

The consumer price indices are normally based on prices collected from outlets around the country, supplemented by information collected centrally over the internet and by phone. The figures in this publication use data collected on or around 18 March 2025.

Our Consumer price indices, a brief guide: 2017 gives an overview of consumer price statistics, while our Consumer Prices Indices Technical Manual, 2019 covers the concepts and methodologies underpinning the indices in more detail.

Our CPIH Compendium provides a comprehensive source of information on the CPIH, focusing on the approach to measuring owner occupiers’ housing costs.

Our Users and uses of consumer price inflation statistics: July 2018 update includes information on the users and uses of these statistics, and the characteristics of the different measures of inflation related to potential use.

Strengths and limitations

We illustrated our approach to Measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households most recently in December 2023 using three “use cases”, and described how they relate to the measures published and under development.

The three cases refer firstly to the CPIH as our lead measure of inflation based on economic principles. They also refer to the HCIs as a set of measures that reflect the change in costs and prices experienced by different households, and the RPI as a legacy measure that is required to meet existing user needs. Our Shortcomings of the RPI as a measure of inflation article describes the issues with the RPI.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in July 2017. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled “accredited official statistics”.