The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data showing that twelve-month inflation on the consumer Prices Index (CPI) was at a new ten year high of 5.1% in November. On the old measure, still used on rail fares and student loans for example, the Retail Prices Index (RPI) has hit 7.1% for the twelve month period to November.

Writing in the Financial Times (17th February) the boss of fund management group Fundsmith, Terry Smith, asks why investors are pouring money into funds that track emerging stock market indices. These tracker funds invest in shares according to their market capitalisation, so they invest most in the big companies, which in emerging markets are often inefficient and partly state-owned. Mr Smith says the ten largest emerging market companies earn well below-average returns for their shareholders, so they are not shares that quality-conscious investors like him want to buy.

Mrs May’s decision to call a General Election on June 8 had little immediate impact on financial markets. Nor is it likely to cause any major wobbles over the next

Philip Hammond’s U-turn on a proposed rise in National Insurance contributions for the self-employed is one of the biggest blunders ever by a Chancellor of the Exchequer. He promised to add £2 billion to government funding for crisis-hit social care, and thought he could get away with an NI rise to cover part of that cost because his predecessor George Osborne had said that a promise in the Conservative election manifesto from 2015 not to raise NI only applied to the main employer and employee rates. But the manifesto didn’t say that. Both the Tory Press and Conservative back-bench MP’s pilloried Hammond for attacking ‘strivers’ and Westminster gossip says Theresa May demanded he cancel the proposal.