Inflation halved will still leave Sunak with little to boast about

Slower price growth, due partly to tighter Treasury purse strings, won't lift the gloom of a flatlining economy

UK inflation could be found to have fallen below 5% for the first time in two years when figures for October are published this week. It would be a landmark moment for Rishi Sunak, who in 2022 promised to halve inflation from its 10.7% level.

The prime minister made inflation one of the five pledges by which the nation should judge his premiership. And a drop to less than 5% in the consumer prices index could well be one of the few pledges he can comfortably say has verifiably been achieved.