It's a big moment. It's a big moment for two reasons. Inflation is the rate at which prices are rising. This is the cost of living crisis that we've all been experiencing. It was in double figures. It was in double figures, over 11%. Not long ago. It went up very high indeed. You'll remember that the Prime Minister has set this target, one of his five targets that he wanted to hit, he wanted to half inflation. What that would have meant in practice at the time, it was over 10%. It would have meant getting it down to about 5.4%. Last time around, it was over 6%. The numbers that we had in September, these numbers that have just come out, actually, we can show you here. These numbers that have just come out are a big deal. Let me show you the political point. That is the rate of inflation. You can see it on your screen there. Let me just show you what happens, what the Prime Minister would like it to get to. You'll see, that's half-the-inflation. You see that line there? That's the point at which he can claim that he has halfed inflation.

That big target, they've been talking about this for the best part of a year, and here's where it has just gone. Just look at this line. A very big fall indeed, and it's gone below that rate. Why? Well, this is largely because most economists expected it to fall by a lot. They didn't actually expect it to fall by quite as much as this, maybe 4.8, 4.7%. So 4.6% is a bigger fall than expected. It's largely because of all those big energy increases that happened just over a year ago, they have dropped out. We're no longer on an annual rate. What you're looking at there is the annual rate at which prices are going up. Whereas they went up very fast before energy prices, in the last year, in the last 12 months, they haven't gone up by as much. That basically means that inflation isn't as high. It's still higher than the Bank of England would like, but the fact that it's coming down more than expected, leaving aside the Chancellor's thing, he didn't have much to do with it, it's a Bank of England thing, it's a big deal because maybe the Bank of England might be less likely to have interest rates as high for long.

So it's good news on that front, but still- I have a Christmas present potentially. I've got to let you go. I'm being told you might be- I'm going to go and talk to the trustee. I know you are. I know. But I should say it's still high. For many people, this is still a very tough time, but it is getting lower and there's a bit of good economic news that we've just had.