Inflation is finally at the Bank of England's target – and it only took four years to get there.
So we expect that the Bank's (still relatively new to the job) governor Mark Carney will be pretty pleased by this chart of falling annual consumer price inflation:
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This morning Societe Generale's Kit Juckes said that the recent decline in inflation was probably over – consensus estimates suggested that inflation would stay put at 2.1 per cent.
But even if inflation had remained above target Juckes suspects that "Carney is winning the propaganda war and the market will wait for the FPC to tackle the housing market."
Now Carney can "breathe a tad easier", says Jeremy Cook, chief economist at World First as "core prices – without volatile food and energy inputs – hit 1.7 per cent, matching October’s four year low."
There are still good arguments even with softening price pressures. The Bank will face a credibility problem if it does hike in response to falling unemployment.
Applying the Taylor Rule – which suggests prudent interest rates to stabilise the economy – the UK's monetary policy has been too loose since 2009.
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