According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), half of the 0.3 percentage point increase in the rate of inflation to 3% in December was due to Gordon Brown’s increased tax on petrol and the other half was apparently caused by furniture retailers hiking their prices so they could reduce them in the January sales.

Since the rate did not actually go above 3% the Governor of the Bank of England – Mervyn King – was spared the task of having to write an open letter to Gordon Brown explaining why and what the Bank intended to do about it.

Opinion amongst some economists is that the rate will fall back sharply later this year possibly hitting 2% by the summer as petrol prices fall back in line with a sharp drop in the price of crude oil and utility bills stop rising or even go into reverse in line with the fall in wholesale gas prices.