The Britain's consumer prices index (CPI) rose to 1.9 percent in the year to June 2014, exceeding the market's expectations, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Tuesday.
The inflation rate surged to a five-month high last month, up from 1.5 percent in May. The rate is now close to the Bank of England's 2 percent target, prompting the market's expectation of an early rise of the central bank rate.
The largest contributions to the rise in the rate came from the clothing, food & non-alcoholic drinks and air transport sectors, said the ONS.
Rising furniture, household equipment & maintenance prices also pushed the inflation rate up, the ONS said.
At the meantime, there were no large downward contributions to the change in the CPI 12-month rate between May and June 2014, said the ONS. The only, relatively small, downward effect came from miscellaneous goods & services.
CPIH, an inflation gauge include consumer prices and owner occupier's housing costs, increased 1.8 percent in the year to June 2014, up from 1.4 percent a month previous, data also showed.