The UK’s consumer price index data was released last week.

According to the report from the Office for National Statistics, consumer prices in the UK rose at an annualized pace of 3.0% on the month ending December 2017.

This was broadly in line with the economists expectations. In November, consumer prices peaked 3.1% on the year.

Core CPI which strips the volatile food and energy prices also rose at a slower pace of just 2.5% on an annualized basis.

The pace of CPI gains were lower than expected. Economists expected core CPI to rise 2.6%.

In November, core CPI had increased 2.7% on the year.

The declines in the inflation on both the headline and the core CPI comes as the Bank of England hiked interest rates in November.

This is partly seen as one of the reasons for inflation to have slowed.

However, both measures of inflation still remain stubbornly above the BoE’s 2.0% inflation target rate.

Analysts expect that consumer prices in the UK will average around 2.5% by mid-next year.

The Bank of England is expected to push for another rate hike by August next year as a result.

The British pound was broadly muted to the news release with most of the gains in the GBP coming on the back of a weaker U.S. dollar.