Jeremy Hunt: we underestimated the impact of money-printing

Speaking at the Centre for Policy Studies fringe event at Conservative party conference this afternoon, Jeremy Hunt reiterated once again that there would be no big tax cuts this year. ‘Debt interest payments have gone up so much in the past six months’, he told CPS director Robert Colvile, taking estimates for debt servicing payments over the £100 billion mark this fiscal year. The Autumn Statement, the Chancellor said, will lay bare just how dire the situation is: ‘It’s likely that our debt interest payments… are going to go up by more than £20bn pounds a year in the Autumn Budget compared to what was predicted in the spring.’ In other words: no tax cuts until inflation stops wreaking havoc on borrowing costs.

What triggered the inflation crisis that has caused so much damage to personal and public finances? There are many reasons cited, but some suit certain agendas better than others.