UK inflation reached 5.2% in September as the impact of a spate of price rises in the utilities sector hit customers, figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed.

The consumer prices index rose to 4.7% while the retail prices index hit 5%.

But the figure does not factor in recent falls in the price of oil, which has seen the cost of petrol and diesel fall slightly, or drops in the price of food. Some analysts believe inflation will now fall over the coming months.

The statistics also fail to take into account the recent interest rate cut, which will give those on tracker mortgages and some on standard variable rates more disposable income and raise the possibility of further rises in inflation.

The government's target for inflation is 2% but rates are not expected to return to this level until the second half of 2009 at the earliest.