# Surging energy prices push inflation up to highest level since March

By Sarah Coles — 2026-08-19

Despite inflation rising from a 15-month low last month, AJ Bell head of personal finance Sarah Coles has seen worse.

She said: “Inflation has risen from 2.6 per cent in June to 2.9 per cent in July, which is always going to stretch household budgets thinner.

“Yet at this level, inflation is nothing like as dramatic as it was during the height of the cost-of-living crisis, so you’d be forgiven for wondering why money seems so tight right now.”

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