Cruises, golf and private health: how baby boomer spending has kept UK inflation stubbornly high

The postwar generation has benefited from good pensions and now interest rate rises, but while its spending has boosted the economy, it has many downsides - not least prices

Rishi Sunak has pledged to halve inflation this year, but faces a challenge from the verygroup of core voters he hopes will keep him in office: baby boomers.

Born in the postwar years between 1946 and 1964, and now aged 59 to 77 years old, boomers are contributing to stubbornly high inflation with their spending splurges. Armed with final-salary pensions or good jobs, and boosted by a rapid rise in interest rates on their nest eggs, millions of boomers are defying the wider economic gloom to keep spending.