Consumer prices tumbled in October, justifying the Bank of England’s 1.5 percentage point interest rate cut this month and opening the door to further reductions in the costs of borrowing.

The official measure of consumer prices last month dropped 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to a lower than expected annual rate of 4.5 per cent, down from 5.2 per cent in September. The fall in inflation was the first in 15 months and the largest one-month drop since the Consumer Price Index began in 1997.