The Bank of England is often said to be walking a tightrope, at risk of a precipitous fall into inflation on one side and recession on the other. But it is also possible to fall with one leg on either side of the rope – and that hurts too. New data suggest that Britain has an inflation problem and that, even though the economy is weakening, the Bank must delay interest rate cuts until it can be confident that the slowdown is sufficient to cool price rises.

The inflation data were bad. Consumer prices rose by 3 per cent in the year to April, a full percentage point above the Bank’s 2 per cent target, while the price of goods leaving factories rose by 6.2 per cent in the year to March. Much of that is because of higher commodity prices and falls in sterling, which cause import prices to go up, but there were also worrying signs of core domestic inflation. Service prices rose by 3.7 per cent over the year.