UK inflation accelerates to 41-year high of 11.1%

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s inflation rate rose to a 41-year high in October, fueling demands for the government to do more to ease the nation’s cost-of-living crisis when it releases new tax and spending plans Thursday. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that consumer prices rose 11.1% in the 12 months through October, compared with 10.1% in September. Higher prices for food and energy drove Britain’s inflation rate to the highest since October 1981. It exceeds the record 10.7% inflation seen last month in the 19 European countries using the euro currency and the U.S. rate of 7.7%, which slowed in October.