Inflation is back up to 2.9%. Here is what it does to your money.
UK inflation rose to 2.9% in July, its first climb in months, pushed up by energy bills. It nudges above the Bank of England's target and quietly shrinks both pay and savings. Here is what the figures mean for you.
Inflation has turned back up. Consumer prices rose by 2.9 per cent in the year to July 2026, according to figures published this morning by the Office for National Statistics, up from 2.6 per cent in June. On the ONS's preferred measure, which includes housing costs, the rate is 3.1 per cent. After months of easing, this is the first clear step in the wrong direction, and it pushes inflation back above the Bank of England's 2 per cent target.
The number matters because inflation is not just a headline. It is the quiet force that decides whether your pay rise is real, whether your savings are growing or shrinking, and what the Bank does next with interest rates.
What pushed it up
Almost all of the increase came from one place: the cost of keeping the lights on and the house warm. The ONS said housing and household services, along with furniture, made the largest upward contributions, with gas and electricity prices the main driver. Working the other way, transport costs fell, helped by cheaper motor fuel, which softened the overall rise.
There is a reassuring detail underneath. Core inflation, which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco to show the underlying trend, held steady at 2.6 per cent. That suggests July's jump is mostly an energy story rather than a sign that price pressure is spreading across the whole economy.
What it does to your pay
Yesterday's labour market figures showed regular pay growing 3.5 per cent a year, but only about 0.5 per cent once inflation was taken off, as we covered in your pay rose 3.5 per cent, and what is really left. Today's higher inflation reading makes that thin margin thinner still. As a rough rule, a pay rise now has to clear roughly 3 per cent just to keep your spending power standing still, and only the part above that is a genuine gain. Our take-home pay calculator shows what a rise actually adds once tax and National Insurance come out.
What it does to your savings
Inflation is a slow tax on cash. If your savings earn less than 2.9 per cent after tax, their real value is falling even as the balance rises. To stay ahead you need a rate that beats inflation, and the gap compounds year after year. Our inflation calculator shows what a sum from any past year is worth in today's money, and the compound interest calculator lets you check whether an account is genuinely growing your money in real terms or just running to stand still.
What happens next
A single month does not change everything, but it complicates the picture. The Bank of England has been cutting rates cautiously, on the expectation that inflation would keep drifting down towards 2 per cent; a re-acceleration, even a mostly energy-driven one, gives it reason to move slowly. The next big signal is the energy price cap for October to December, which Ofgem sets by 26 August, since energy is doing most of the work in these numbers. Steady core inflation is the hopeful sign; another rise in the autumn would be the worry.
This is general information, not financial advice. Inflation figures are from the Office for National Statistics and cover the 12 months to July 2026. Whether a saving or pay rise beats inflation depends on your own rate, tax and circumstances.
Photo by Huy Phan on Pexels.
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