Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has discussed with the Governor of the Bank of England the recent rise in the Consumer Price Index; and if he will make a statement.

The Chancellor has regular discussions with the Governor of the Bank of England on the economy. Maintaining price stability is the primary objective of the Monetary Policy Committee. This objective is defined as an inflation target of 2 per cent as measured by the twelve month increase in the Consumer Prices Index.

Members of the Monetary Policy Committee are committed to transparency, publicly setting out their views of the outlook for the economy. The Committee publishes detailed forecasts for a range of economic variables in their quarterly Inflation Report, forecasting in May that average CPI inflation would fall to 2.4% in 2018 and 2.2% in 2019.