Money digest: today’s need-to-know financial news | 13 April 2016

If you’re worried about your energy bills, you’ll find little comfort in a report by the Daily Express today which says that gas and electricity wholesale prices have dropped to their lowest level in nearly a decade, sparking calls for suppliers to cut bills by 10 per cent. Prices have averaged at nine-year lows over the first quarter of this year, according to industry analysts at the ICIS Power Index. Comparison website uSwitch seized on the figures to call on suppliers to reduce standard tariffs by a further 10 per cent. Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com, said the numbers showed that consumers have ‘yet again’ been ‘short-changed by token gesture price cuts’.

UK inflation as measured by the Consumer Prices Index rose to 0.5 per cent in March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said yesterday. A sharp increase in air fares, due to the earlier timing of Easter, was the main reason behind the rise from February’s rate of 0.3