Headline inflation rose sharply, from 2.6 per cent in March to 3.5 per cent in April, driven primarily by higher utility bills. A pick-up in inflation was widely anticipated, but the scale of the increase took many by surprise. The news was largely in core inflation, which rose by 0.4 percentage points to 3.8 per cent, a reading 0.2 percentage points higher than expected both by Fathom and the consensus.