Prime Minister Gordon Brown may have been right to tell the BBC's Nick Robinson yesterday that they have risen 180% in 10 years (actually it's 171%), but maybe not so right to tell him that, in that context, a 2.5% fall in March was nothing to worry about it.
It sure as hell is if it's repeated. Mind you, he also told Robinson that interest rates were coming down, (although he did not specify when).
This Thursday is the answer.
The figure most on Brown's mind is the next measure of inflation data.
We have already had Marks & Spencer's Stuart Rose telling us that the real rate of inflation (as opposed to the Government’s measure) is 8%.
If the government measure outstrips 3% it's going to make the job of the Bank of England in reducing rates further impossible, unless its remit (to control inflation) is changed.
Rising inflation and reducing consumption is everybody's worst economic nightmare (especially governing politicians preparing for an election in a year).
So far adspend doesn't seem to have been affected, with some media agencies apparently expecting spend to pick up in the next six months.
But, then, they're just spectators. Rather like the Prime Minister and the Treasury.
HSBC bucks the mortgage trend
HSBC, which is already the UK's biggest bank, stands a good chance of becoming the world's biggest bank outside China this year as US rival Citigroup tries desperately to shrink its loan book (it announced yesterday that it was offloading $12bn worth).
HSBC may have lost a packet in the US mortgage market but its managers have been making bullish noises recently about the strength of its balance sheet and today it announced that it would match existing deals for up to two years for mortgage customers in the UK coming off fixed rate deals -- including rates as low as 4.54%.
Customers will need to stump up 20% of the equity in their home, and HSBC is going to charge a variable fee for its munificence, but it's still an audacious mortgage land grab.
The bank is certainly expecting a rush, it's putting three times as many staff as usual into handling applications.
If its fees are too high, though, it'll be a huge own goal. But it just might make some of the other mortgage lenders loosen their purse strings too and ease the pressure on the market.
GM bets the future on Volt
Labour's Ken Livingstone's big new policy for London (if ), is a capital-wide 20mph speed limit.
Ken reckons (almost certainly correctly) that this will greatly reduce fatal road accidents. It would presumably reduce carbon emissions too, although it would generate plenty of hot air from other sources.
Tory rival and BMW M3 fan Boris Johnson isn't having any of it, but it's a sign of the way things are moving.
A report came out a while ago saying that a reduction in the maximum speed limit here from 70mph to 50mph would halve carbon emissions on Britain's motorways.
And Toyota can't make enough Prius hybrids.
So it's not really surprising that embattled General Motors (still, just, the world's biggest carmaker ahead of Toyota) is betting the ranch on its new Volt, which is supposed to be able to drive 40 miles just on electricity.
This is much further than the Prius and, crucially, 40 miles is well within most Americans' commuting distance. Meaning that some drivers will never have to use gasoline at all.
If it works (and GM is fast-tracking some mostly unproven technology) then the car market really could be transformed.
If you're limited to 20mph in town and 50mph on the motorway you may as well have one (GM is aiming for "late" 2010).
They'll be choking over their breakfast wurst in Munich and Stuttgart -- maybe.
The Chinese are coming -- again
This time it's not blue track-suited special forces heavies guarding the Olympics torch, but the Chinese invading the long-mooted mega-merger between mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that the Chinese (through one of their state-owned investment vehicles), were looking to buy 9% of BHP and the shares rocketed in Sydney and London.
The Chinese would be by far the biggest customer of any such merged company and, not unreasonably, they want to be in a position to determine what goes on in terms of raw material pricing. Or they could try to use their stake to block a merger.
But the Australian government doesn't like the idea of the biggest regional power owning a big slice of its biggest company, so it might feel obliged to intervene if the Chinese bought a big stake.
Rather messy all round.
But another sign of things to come.
Stephen Foster is a former news editor of 北京赛车pk10, former editor of Marketing Week and Evening Standard ad columnist. He is a partner in Editorial Partnership and writes the blog and Politics of the Media for Brand Republic.