LONDON (AFX)- The UK budget released on March 7 is estimated to knock off 0.18 percentage points from the monthly headline RPI figure, according to the National Statistics office.
This compares with last year's budget which added 0.29 percentage points to the monthly RPI number.
The biggest downward effect on RPI arising from the budget will come from changes to excise duties on road fuel, which is estimated to lop off 0.15 percentage points.
A smaller downward effect of 0.06 percentage points is expected from the measures on vehicle excise duties.
An offsetting effect of 0.04 percentage points is due to come from the inflation linked duties on tobacoo, NS added. The March 2001 budget will reduce year-on-year headline RPI by 11 percentage points, NS estimated.