THE UK is the least successful country in the G7 at curbing inflation, new analysis has concluded.
It has also been found to be one of the three worst in the wider 38-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The organisation said that in the UK inflation picked up speed from 7.8% in April to 7.9% in May.
That compared with an average reduction in inflation from 5.4% to 4.6% in the G7, which includes the US, Japan and Germany.
Only the Netherlands and Norway in the OECD, alongside the UK, recorded an acceleration in prices in May.
The organisation’s national consumer price index for the UK includes the costs of owning and living in a home and is its most comprehensive measure of inflation.
Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s economy spokesperson, has warned the Tories and Labour’s obsession with Brexit is “destroying Scotland’s economy and causing misery for households across the country”.
He said: “Households across Scotland are paying an unacceptable price for continued Westminster control, with UK inflation soaring in comparison to our G7 neighbours.
“And yet, despite the evidence, both the Tories and pro-Brexit Labour refuse to accept the impact Brexit is having on our economy, offering people no route back into the European Union.
“Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer’s Brexit obsession is destroying Scotland’s economy and causing misery for households across the country.
“That is why there can be no doubt that independence is the only way to deliver economic prosperity for Scotland.”
Across all OECD nations, inflation currently ranges from less than 3% in Costa Rica, Greece and Denmark to more than 20% in Hungary and Turkey.
The Bank of England has an inflation target of 2% and has raised interest rates 13 times in a row in an attempt to control rising prices.
Rishi Sunak at the start of the year made halving inflation from the then 10.7% one of his five targets for the year.
Challenged by MPs on the parliamentary liaison committee on Tuesday over whether this target would now be met, Sunak admitted it could prove difficult.
