Inflation surged further above the Bank of England's target in January, forcing Bank of England Governor Mervyn King to write a public letter where he said inflation should still get back on track later this year. Official data showed consumer price inflation rose to 3.5 percent in January from December's 2.9 percent, in line with economists' expectations, after a rise in value-added tax on January 1, as well as falls in oil and food prices a year ago coming out of the annual comparison. But this increase to a 14-month high still took inflation more than a full percentage point above the BoE's 2 percent target, obliging King to write a public letter to Chancellor Alistair Darling explaining the rapid price rises. Darling, facing a national election by June, replied to King that the Treasury also expected inflation to fall below 2 percent by the end of 2010. Inflation has risen rapidly from a five-year low of 1.1 percent set in September 2009, but most economists, like the BoE, are happy to view this as temporary and the mirror image of developments a year or more ago, when oil prices fell sharply, only to rise, and VAT was temporarily cut.