Retail trade figures outstripped expectations with a 0.5% rise in March. Is that good or bad news? ponders Glenn Dyer.
Household goods
Where inflation hurts
Since the election of 2004 the CPI has risen 8.3% but an actual decline in the cost of clothing and small rises in the cost of household goods and communications disguise the somewhat sharper rises in the price of food, alcohol and tobacco, rents, health and education, writes Richard Farmer.
