Inflation spike to be temporary but life will get much tougher for those on low incomes as the Boris bill mounts

The outlook has deteriorated, and while City economists persuasively argue that the worst will be over by 2023, that won’t come as much comfort for those already struggling to pay bills

The Bank of England thinks inflation spike will be temporary. The City largely agrees (PA)

How nasty are the price rises we’ve been told to expect going to get?

There is a particular subset of economic commentators who’ve taken to playing the role of Jeremiah on this subject. Watch out, they say, because if we’re not careful inflation is going to roar back and the consequences won’t be pretty.

As a rule, they tend to be either Baby Boomers or from the early part of Generation X. In other words, they are old enough to have been conscious of prices rising at nearly 25 per cent, which they did at points during the 1970s, and certainly when inflation topped 9 per cent in the early Nineties.