BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.

In January, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made five pledges,

the greatest of which was to halve inflation by the end of 2023.

It was just over 10% then, and most forecasters saw getting it down to just over

5% as an easy win. They're not saying that now. We're halfway through the year and inflation is a grim

8.7%. So how have we got this so very wrong? Can we fix it? And what does it mean for the UK economy

if we can or even if we can? Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out.

First, let's look at the recent story of inflation here and abroad.

Joining me are Meryn Kahn, economics editor at the Times,

and Duncan Weldon, economist and author of an economic history of Britain,

200 years of muddling through.

Marion Kahn, we can obviously all of us remember a very recent time

when inflation was just hovering above 0%.

I think we thought it'd stay that way forever. When did it start going up significantly?

Well, looking back at the charts of inflation, we can see a clear trend upwards around the summer

of 2021. So we saw inflation exceed around 2% in June, again in July, and then it basically

just rockets up into an upward trajectory, which ends with an 11.1% peak of inflation in

October 2022. And since that point, at the beginning of 2022, we've had a response from the Bank

of England. But actually,

despite all the talk about the war being the primary cause of inflation, which was definitely the

case last year, the increase or the slight upsurge in inflation was happening just before

the end of lots of lockdowns across Europe and in the UK in the summer of 2021, where people were probably

...