The annual rate of inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) saw an increase to 2.9% in May from 2.5% in April.

The annual rate of inflation excluding housing costs shown by the RPI also increased for May to 2.8%.

The same rate shown by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) is 2.3% for May 2012.

Figures show that food has risen 6.4% over the last 12 months with alcohol and tobacco rising even more with a 6.9% hike.

Within the individual sectors there were some interesting figures. Food staple potatoes showed a 20.6% increase over the last year, but furniture dropped by just under 11%. The cost of insuring your house was also down by 14.3%.

Travel has gone up - rising 5.8% - but there were some other crumbs of comfort for consumers showed motoring costs exlcuding fuel dropped 0.1% and whilst CD's went up 22.3%, leisure goods overall were down 1.8%