Inflation picture strengthens

That consumer price index figure is nearing the government-imposed target of 2%, which the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is supposed to follow when setting interest rates. The retail price index rate of 3% is one of the highest in the past few years. The RPIX – RPI excluding mortgage interest payments – remained steady in June at 2.3%, still close to the 2.5% RPIX rate the Bank was supposed to use as its target under previous rules governing interest rate decisions by the MPC. Allowing CPI to rise above 2% is not necessarily a problem as the MPC has leeway of 1%...