The Bank of England expects to have to deal next year with the combination of a slowing economy plus rising inflation. Does this signal a return to the “stagflation” that haunted central bankers in the 1970s?

The phrase was coined to describe the sickly combination of double-digit inflation and high unemployment – or generally weak economic growth. But to use the term now would be alarmist, says the Bank. Stagflation “is not a word I intend to use,” said Mervyn King, Bank governor, at a press conference last month. “I don’t think in the great scheme of things this is a tremendously severe slowdown.”