He said: “Back then a rate of 5.4pc was welcomed as a good sign, because it meant inflation was coming down from astronomical heights in the previous years. The last time inflation was this high, he wrote the press release. In the early 1990s, Andy Fleming, 57, worked in the press office of the Central Statistical Office, now the Office for National Statistics. Inflation hit 5.4pc in the year to December, when the Consumer Prices Index recorded its biggest increase since 1992 on the back of rising food, clothing and fuel costs. “But now the threat has become very real again and I am really concerned about how my wife and I will get through our remaining years.” I don’t want that situation to repeat itself,” he said. “Ever since then inflation has always been a huge worry for me. But within a short time all his prudence had been wiped out by inflation,” he said.īy the 1980s he and his siblings were paying their parents a monthly allowance to help keep their heads above water. “I observed my father being prudent all his life and working hard before retiring in the 1970s. The threat is personal for 77-year-old Patrick Lawson*, who watched his father lose his life savings to rampant inflation half a century ago.

For those who remember previous inflation spikes, the warning signs are clear. The cost of living has risen at a pace not seen in a generation.

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