LONDON, May 27 Reuters British finance minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday his new 15 billion pound 19 billion costofliving support package would have an impact of less than 1 percentage point on inflation.

Sunak had been under heavy political pressure to act to alleviate the biggest squeeze on households39; disposable income since the 1950s, but some critics had warned more government spending risked exacerbating price pressures.

My view is that it will have a minimal impact on inflation, Sunak told Sky News. Asked if it would be a one percentage point impact, he said Much, much less than that.

British inflation hit a 40year high of 9.0 in April, and earlier this month the Bank of England warned it would reach double digits by the end of the year, as regulated energy tariffs were on course to surge by a further 40 in October.

Sunak said on Thursday high inflation was now causing acute distress. 

The new measures are partly funded by a 25 windfall tax on oil and gas producers39; profits. 

Asked about a possible windfall tax on electricity generators too, Sunak said the government was looking at the industry39;s profits.

What we want to do and we are going to do urgently is understand the scale of those profits, and then decide on the appropriate next steps, he told Sky News.

The squeeze on consumer spending risks pushing the economy into recession by the end of this year, but Sunak rejected parallels with 1970sstyle stagflation.

I don39;t share that…