Inflation, house prices, pensions and car insurance

UK inflation will quadruple to about 4 per cent in the second half of next year and cut disposable income, according to a leading think tank.

The rise in prices will ‘accelerate rapidly’ during 2017 as the fall in sterling is passed on to consumers, according to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. The revised figure is significantly higher than the 3 per cent it forecast in August. ‘Households have really got a choice. Do they spend less or do they start saving less?’ Angus Armstrong, director of macroeconomics at NIESR, told the BBC’s Today programme. Meanwhile, ratings agency Moody’s is thinking about downgrading the UK over Brexit fears. Kathrin Muehlbronner, a Moody’s senior vice president, said: ‘We would downgrade the UK’s sovereign rating if the outcome of the negotiations with the EU was a loss of access to the single market as this would materially damage its medium-term growth prospects.’ House prices House price growth ground to a halt in October after 15 successive month-on-month increases, according to the Nationwide Building Society.