Rising prices are Britons’ biggest money worry as inflation stays high, survey finds

Households ‘increasingly gloomy’ about finances amid fears of interest rate rises due to higher fuel prices Rising prices have become the top financial concern for UK households, according to a monthly consumer confidence survey, before Wednesday’s official figures, which are likely to show inflation remaining stubbornly high. Amid fears of higher interest rates owing to increased fuel prices after the closure of the strait of Hormuz amid the conflict in the Middle East, households have become “increasingly gloomy about their financial situation”, the report said. The survey, from S&P Global, a data intelligence company, shows that its consumer sentiment index figure dropped to 42.1 in May, from 42.3 in April, the lowest level since July 2023 when inflation in the UK was soaring as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The index takes a combined figure tracking how people feel about their household spending, financial wellbeing, savings, debt and employment. Maryam Baluch, an economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that aside from during the periods of the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine-related energy price rise, the index score has not been this low sinc