The latest inflation figure rose to 3.4% in December, up fractionally from 3.3% the previous month, caused mainly by the rising price of plane tickets up 10.7% from 0.3% in November.

Constantly high food inflation was another major contributor to the increase in inflation, up 0.4% in a single month at 4.4%. Once again, the late Budget reared its head, with tax rises of 6% on tobacco filtering through to December numbers, rather than a month earlier as is normally the case.