The current backdrop of rampant inflation, soaring energy prices driven by geopolitical tensions, and impending recession has provoked much talk of the parallels with the UK’s last big inflationary crisis, in the 1970s.
Back then the retail price index peaked in 1975 at almost 27%, following chancellor Anthony Barber's ill-fated 1972 ‘budget for growth' under Edward Heath's Conservative government and OPEC's 1973 oil embargo. Such comparisons - particularly with the ‘Barber Boom' that fueled wage rises and inflation - have become more meaningful in the aftermath of the so-called Mini Budget announced towards the end of September by chancellor Kwazi Kwarteng, which sent sterling plunging to all-time lows against the dollar, and gilt yields soaring. A more useful comparison But while the economic par...
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