House prices showed a surprise 1.0 percent fall in February, ending a run of nine consecutive monthly increases, figures from the Nationwide Building Society showed today. Analysts had forecast an increase of 0.4 percent for the month and Nationwide said it was too early to say if the figures were the start of a new trend or a temporary blip. The end of a stamp duty holiday on property sales and snowy weather were cited as possible factors behind the price decline.The annual rate of inflation increased to 9.2 percent from 8.6 percent because the price decline in February was smaller than the 1.5 percent fall 12 months ago. The British economy crawled out of recession in the last quarter of 2009, according to provisional data. A second estimate of the quarterly GDP figures is due at 0930 GMT today.