Some good news for Rishi this morning, he’s getting somewhere with one of his five pledges – to halve inflation. According to ONS figures, Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 4.6% in October, down from 10.7% in January when Rishi first promised to halve inflation, the lowest rate since November 2021. Sunak shouldn’t get too excited however, as one statistic shows high inflation over the last two years has cost UK workers the equivalent of a 3p income tax rise. Given how much inflation has grown, a halve in the rate it’s growing isn’t something to be “popping champagne corks” over, as Shadow Chancellor Reeves put it…

The fall is mainly due to lower energy prices, as gas costs are were down 31% and electricity costs fell by 15.6%, though core inflation did fall from 6.1% to 5.7%. What the energy markets give they could just as easily take away. Still a long road to the Bank of England’s actual inflation target of 2%…