UK CPI Inflation: 2026 Schedule, Dates and What to Expect

UK CPI inflation is the official measure of how fast consumer prices are rising in Britain, published every month by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Each release covers the previous calendar month and lands at 7:00 am London time, which is 2:00 am ET and 7:00 am BST during British Summer Time. The next release is on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, covering prices in August 2026. This page carries the full monthly schedule through September 2027, the methodology, the latest published readings and an ICS and Google Calendar feed so every date drops straight into your own diary.

The timing of the September 16, 2026 release matters more than usual: the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee announces its next Bank Rate decision the following day, on September 17, 2026, according to the Bank of England. For a comparison with the American equivalent, see our hub for the US CPI report.

2026 and 2027 schedule

The ONS publishes its consumer price inflation bulletin monthly, almost always on a Wednesday at 7:00 am London time. Dates below are taken from the ONS release calendar. Each release refers to the previous month: for example, the September 16, 2026 bulletin covers August 2026 prices.

Note the clock change: the UK moves from British Summer Time (BST) to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in late October, so the 7:00 am London release shifts from 2:00 am ET to 3:00 am New York time for the winter months. In Asia, 7:00 am London is 3:00 pm Hong Kong and Singapore in summer, 4:00 pm in winter.

What is UK CPI inflation?

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) tracks the average change in the price of a large basket of goods and services bought by UK households: food, energy, rent-related costs, clothing, transport, restaurants, insurance, haircuts and much more. The headline figure most people quote is the annual rate, meaning the percentage change compared with the same month a year earlier. A monthly rate is published alongside it, showing the change from the previous month.

Inflation of 2.9% does not mean prices are falling or even that they have stopped rising quickly. It means the average basket costs 2.9% more than it did twelve months earlier. Prices only fall when the rate turns negative, which is called deflation. When the rate drops but stays positive, that is disinflation: prices are still rising, just less quickly.

The ONS publishes several measures in the same bulletin, and knowing the difference avoids most of the confusion around inflation headlines:

• CPI: the headline measure, and the one the Bank of England’s 2% target is set against.
• CPIH: CPI including owner occupiers’ housing costs and council tax. It is the ONS’s preferred measure because it captures housing costs for homeowners.
• Core CPI: CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco. These four are volatile and driven largely by global commodity prices, so stripping them out gives a cleaner read on domestically generated inflation.
• Services CPI: prices of services rather than goods. The Bank of England watches this closely because services prices reflect wages and are slow to change.
• RPI: the older Retail Prices Index, no longer a national statistic but still used in some index-linked contracts, student loan interest and rail fare formulas.

The most recent published reading is for July 2026: CPI rose by 2.9% in the twelve months to July 2026, up from 2.6% in June, with the ONS pointing to housing and household services and furniture as the largest upward contributors and transport as the biggest offsetting drag. Core CPI was 2.6% and services inflation eased to 3.4%, according to the ONS bulletin.

How is UK CPI calculated?

The ONS collects roughly 180,000 individual prices each month, covering a basket of several hundred representative items. Prices come from three main sources: field collectors visiting shops around the country, central collection from websites and head offices, and administrative or scanner data supplied by retailers and other organisations. The basket is reviewed every year so that it reflects what households actually buy, with items added and removed each spring.

Each item is weighted by how much households spend on it, drawn largely from national accounts household expenditure data. Weights are updated annually, and the ONS published its latest weights update in March 2026. That is why a small percentage move in energy or rent can shift the headline rate more than a large move in a minor category.

Two technical points explain most surprises in the data. First, base effects: the annual rate compares this month with the same month a year ago, so an unusually high or low reading twelve months earlier can push the annual rate around even if current prices are behaving normally. Second, administered prices: Ofgem’s energy price cap changes quarterly, water bills and rail fares reset at fixed points in the year, and council tax and many index-linked charges change in April. These create predictable step changes in the index.

Unlike some other statistics, CPI is not seasonally adjusted in its headline form and is not routinely revised. Once a month’s index is published it is normally final, which is one reason markets treat it as a hard number rather than a first estimate. That contrasts with GDP or the US payrolls data, both of which are revised repeatedly.

What time is UK CPI released and where?

The bulletin is published at 7:00 am London time on the scheduled Wednesday, which is 2:00 am ET during British Summer Time and 3:00 am ET when the UK is on GMT. In central Europe that is 8:00 am CET or CEST. The release goes out at the same moment to everyone: the ONS operates a pre-release access regime that is tightly restricted and publicly documented, and no market participant sees the numbers early.

The primary source is the ONS consumer price inflation bulletin on the ONS website, with the full schedule on the ONS release calendar. Alongside the bulletin, the ONS publishes detailed reference tables, a time series dataset and item-level indices. The headline CPI annual rate series is available directly as a single time series on the ONS site. There is also a recorded telephone message with the headline figures, available after 8:00 am on release day.

The 7:00 am timing is deliberate: it lands before the London equity market opens at 8:00 am, giving traders an hour to reprice gilts, sterling and rate expectations in pre-market trading. Sterling often moves within seconds of the release, because algorithmic systems read the numbers straight from the ONS feed.

Recent readings and long-run context

The table below shows published readings and reference points from official and parliamentary sources. The ONS holds the complete back series, including modelled estimates stretching to 1950.

Sources: ONS consumer price inflation bulletin, July 2026, and the House of Commons Library economic indicators briefing on UK inflation. The Bank of England said on June 18, 2026, based on energy market pricing as of June 15, that CPI inflation was expected to be a little under 3% in the third quarter of 2026 and a little over 3.25% in the fourth quarter, lower than it had forecast in April.

For the September 16, 2026 release, covering August 2026, a consensus forecast has not yet been published. Forecasts are typically compiled by Reuters and Bloomberg in the week before the release, and HM Treasury publishes a monthly compilation of independent forecasts for the UK economy.

How do markets react to UK CPI?

CPI is one of the two highest-impact UK data releases, alongside the labour market figures. Its power comes from a simple chain: inflation drives what the Bank of England does with Bank Rate, and Bank Rate drives gilt yields, sterling and mortgage pricing.

The typical pattern when inflation comes in above expectations is that traders bring forward the expected timing of rate rises or push back expected cuts. Short-dated gilt yields rise, sterling usually strengthens against the dollar and euro because higher expected rates make holding the currency more attractive, and rate-sensitive UK shares such as housebuilders and retailers often fall. A softer reading tends to do the reverse: gilt yields fall, sterling eases and domestically focused equities and government bond funds do better.

What surprises markets is the gap between the outcome and expectations, not whether inflation is high or low in absolute terms. A 3.0% reading is bullish for gilts if the market expected 3.3%, and bearish if it expected 2.7%. Traders also look past the headline to services inflation and core inflation, because these tell the MPC more about how persistent price pressure is than a one-off jump in gas prices does.

Context from 2026 shows how that works in practice. The MPC held Bank Rate at 3.75% on July 30, 2026, for a fifth consecutive meeting, on a 6-3 vote, with Huw Pill, Megan Greene and Catherine Mann voting to raise it to 4%, according to the House of Commons Library and reporting on the decision. Commentators described it as a hawkish hold, meaning rates were unchanged but the tone leaned towards tightening. When July CPI then came in at 2.9%, driven partly by a 13% rise in the Ofgem energy price cap, it kept the argument about a possible rise alive into the September 17, 2026 meeting.

UK CPI also matters beyond Britain. Gilts are a large part of global bond indices, so a big surprise can nudge European government bond yields, and sterling moves feed into euro and dollar crosses. For investors in Asia and North America holding UK assets or FTSE-listed multinationals, currency moves on CPI day can matter as much as the share prices themselves.

What It Means for Your Money

Mortgages. Fixed mortgage rates are priced off swap rates, which move with expected future Bank Rate. Persistently higher inflation tends to push fixed rates up, and a run of soft inflation data tends to pull them down. If you are on a tracker or a variable rate, your payment follows Bank Rate directly, so inflation data shapes it indirectly through what the MPC decides.

Savings. What matters is the real return, meaning the interest rate minus inflation. A savings account paying 3.5% when inflation is 2.9% leaves you modestly better off in purchasing power. When inflation is above your rate, the cash balance grows while its buying power shrinks. Higher inflation also tends to keep instant-access rates elevated for longer, because banks expect Bank Rate to stay high.

Prices and wages. CPI is the reference point for many pay negotiations, and for prices set by formula: some rail fares, index-linked commercial rents, mobile and broadband contract increases and various regulated charges. A high reading in a specific month can therefore lock in higher bills for the year ahead.

Pensions and benefits. The state pension triple lock uses the higher of earnings growth, CPI inflation in the September reading, or 2.5%, which makes the September CPI figure, published in October, unusually important. Many benefits are also uprated using September CPI. Index-linked gilts and inflation-linked annuities pay out in line with the RPI or CPI depending on the contract.

Investments. Inflation surprises move bond prices immediately, since bonds pay fixed cash flows that are worth less when inflation is higher. Equity funds heavy in UK domestic sectors tend to be more sensitive to UK rate expectations than global funds. Long-term investors are usually better served by ignoring single releases and focusing on whether inflation is trending towards or away from the 2% target.

The pound. If you are buying currency for a holiday, a property abroad or a business payment, CPI day can move the rate by a fraction of a percent within minutes. On large transfers that is real money, so it is worth knowing the date in advance.

Related economic events

• US CPI report: the American inflation release, published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the single most watched inflation number in global markets.
• US PCE report: the inflation measure the Federal Reserve targets, useful for comparing how central banks judge underlying price pressure.
• US jobs report: monthly payrolls and unemployment data that shape global rate expectations alongside inflation.
• US GDP report: quarterly growth figures that set the backdrop for how much inflation an economy can generate.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the next UK CPI inflation release?

The next release is Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 7:00 am BST (2:00 am ET), covering prices in August 2026. It is followed by October 21, 2026 and November 18, 2026.

What time is UK inflation data published?

Always 7:00 am London time, which is 2:00 am ET during British Summer Time and 3:00 am ET when the UK is on GMT. That is an hour before the London stock market opens.

How often is UK CPI published?

Monthly, usually on a Wednesday, with each bulletin covering the previous calendar month. Confirmed dates are listed on the ONS release calendar and in the schedule table above.

Where can I find the official UK inflation release?

On the ONS website, in the consumer price inflation bulletin, with dates confirmed on the ONS release calendar. The ONS also publishes the underlying time series and detailed reference tables.

How does UK CPI affect interest rates?

The Bank of England has a 2% CPI target, so inflation running above it strengthens the case for keeping Bank Rate high or raising it, while readings near or below target support cuts. Bank Rate was held at 3.75% on July 30, 2026 on a 6-3 vote, with the next decision due on September 17, 2026.