UK braced for 'financial cataclysm' after June inflation rate hits 9.4%

British consumers have been told to prepare themselves for further financial hardship after the latest inflation figures from the Office for National Statistics, or ONS, saw the rate rise to the highest level in four decades.

June's annual rate of 9.4 percent, up from 9.1 percent in May, was the highest recorded since February 1982, with soaring energy bills, fuel and food costs bearing most of the blame.

One of Britain's most high-profile and trusted personal finance figures, Martin Lewis, has already warned of a "financial cataclysm "that will hit the country later in the year, largely driven by further rises in fuel bills.

Anna Leach, deputy chief economist at the Confederation of British Industry, also said the inflationary outlook is unlikely to improve this year, which means that costs are "severely eating into strained household incomes".

The Bank of England has forecast that the rate could hit double digits by the fall, with fears that this could push the United Kingdom's economy into a full-blown recession.

"The increase was driven by rising fuel and food prices; these were only slightly off set by falling secondhand car prices," ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said.

"The cost of both raw materials and goods leaving factories continued to rise, driven by higher metal and food prices respectively. These increases saw raw materials post their highest annual increase on record, with manufactured goods at a 45-year high."

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, told Sky News that the upcoming energy bill increase would prevent inflation falling to 2 percent until the middle of 2024, and that interest rate rises were also to be expected.

"This means more pain is on the way for household budgets as the high rate of inflation continues to outpace wage growth, bringing down the real value of incomes across the UK," she said.

Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who only took up his job weeks ago, shortly before Boris Johnson announced he was stepping down as prime minister, said higher prices were a global challenge, but the government was doing what it could to help people.

"We've introduced 37 billion pounds ($44.5 billion) worth of help for households, including at least 12 hundred pounds for eight million of the most vulnerable families and lifting over two million more of the lowest paid out of paying personal tax," he said.

But with the governing Conservative Party consumed by the race to find Johnson's successor, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said the country had been left with a "zombie government" in its hour of most need.

"Families and pensioners are being hammered by relentless price hikes yet the government is nowhere to be found," she said.