British Vice-Minister of Finance John Glen suggested that the British authorities could achieve their inflation target of 2% by 2025. This comment followed a call by Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt to strengthen attempts to control inflation against the background of recent data. «According to the forecasts of the Bank of England, by the end of this year, inflation may reach 5%, and by the same period next year – 3%. We intend to approach the 2% mark by 2025,» Glen said in an interview. The official also stressed the difficulty of fighting inflation, since many variables affect pricing. However, he assured that the government and the Bank of England are working closely together in an effort to stabilize the economy. The British Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday reported a slowdown in annual inflation in July to 6.8% compared with 7.9% in June. The main factors contributing to this were the decline in gas and electricity prices, as well as a slowdown in the growth of prices for food and soft drinks — up to 14.8% in July against 17.3% in the previous month.
