The Guardian view on inflation: way off target | Editorial

The chancellor cheers at his failure to deliver his stated ambition of price rises of 2%. That must surely mean that it's time to change the target

As polling day nears, we can look forward to a dismal burst of politics as archery. Ministers will brag about bullseyes hit (2m apprenticeships), the opposition will seize on arrows that have veered off course (immigration, the deficit) and wise commentators will explain how the obsession with targets produces all sorts of perversities.

Last week, however, when things went wildly off course in relation to the most important target of the lot, we got a topsy-turvy reaction. Instead of popping up with sheepish excuses, the government's top brass bugled news of their big miss to anyone who would listen. The target is for an inflation rate of 2.0%, with a percentage point miss in either direction being taken so seriously that the governor of the Bank of England has to pick up his pen and explain to the chancellor what's going on. An undershoot is, very explicitly, formally regarded as "just as bad as inflation above the target", and so when the January number came in at 0.3% then that represents - surely - a serious misstep.

Inflation matters, not only as an imperfect gauge of the industrial mood but also in its own right

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