Crude oil tops $95 a barrel raising fears of return to rising inflation

Oil price is bad news for central banks trying to tame inflation and will add to pressure to further increase interest rates

The price of crude oil has topped $95 a barrel, threatening to push up petrol prices at the pump and create a headache for central bankers tasked with taming the resulting inflation.

Markets are already betting that the latest inflation figures from the Office for National Statistics, out on Wednesday, will show a rise in the annual rate of consumer price inflation to 7% in August, from 6.8% in July.