We are not leading the world in deregulation, or in creating new ‘green industries’. We certainly don’t lead in tax-cutting, or innovation, or technology. Still, there is one respect in which the British economy can claim to be ahead of everyone else. Rising prices. When the world is caught up in an inflationary spiral, the UK always seems to suffer more than anyone else – and that is turning out to be just as true in the 2020s as it was in the 1970s and 1980s.
When the inflation date was released today, it did at least record a modest fall. The rate at which prices are rising dropped to 10.1 per cent for January – now a whole percentage point below its peak. That is better than nothing.
Yet inflation is now falling more significantly elsewhere. In the United States, the rate is down to 6.4
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