Nick Goodall

maybe you'd go yeah but if you balance out people's spending by increasing the ocr they're spending less on other things so that inflation slows that means that that can drag down the impact of those other factors so maybe that's the point um but again that's where you come in this conversation about you know what does the ocr actually control you know not those not those international factors that's for sure and that's the one that um increased the most or increased when the other one stayed flat so

But if you can get the domestic inflation down, I suppose, once again, it means that the overall figure would come down, even if the international inflation, that imported inflation, is quite high.

And I guess the thing when we consider about the future of this, which is all what everyone's trying to paint the picture of,

There's, of course, going to be these, you know, upside surprises or concerns.

You know, we've got the USA and Venezuela at the moment with their conflict and the potential impact that has on oil prices.

If it does have an impact on, you know, the ability for that oil to get out around the world or the USA have a really strong impact there.

So, you know, even just having that sort of kind of, you know, dispute about it.

you know, can sort of bring that uncertainty, which is not going to be good for the price of oil and then the flow through that to fuel as well.

So, look, I think there's a number of factors I've just sort of thrown back out there that are things that have jumped to my mind, whether it's we need to provide some insight on, well, the definition of, can you give us a bit more understanding of why all these other things are considered?

Does it really matter?

Or do we just continue to focus on that headline inflation figure and that's what matters and that's all we should really worry about?

Yeah, no, I think that absolutely makes sense.

And when you put it into, you know, terms that actually matter to people, what does it mean?

It means that you're paying 3% more for all your goods, you know, when you put everything into a basket, that's the whole idea of this, than you were a year ago.

And of course, some of those things are, you know, higher than that, 10 to 15% more, and some might be just as cheap, or, you know, some things, of course, do get a bit cheaper, seasonal, all those sorts of things too, which does drag down that inflation.

But

Ultimately, as you say, we've been in a cost of living crisis for a long time.

The economy hasn't been going so great, which means small businesses and businesses and wage earners might not be feeling that great.

They haven't had the same income increases.

Ultimately, people are doing it tough, right?