Inflation pushed down

Cheaper motoring costs pushed inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) down to 5.2% last month against 5.3% in March. Cheaper food and telephone charges also aided the fall.

But under the government’s preferred measure, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), inflation was up sharply — by 0.5 percentage points to 4.5% from 4.0% — due to rising travel costs.