Dear Gordon,
Just writing to explain about inflation this month. When inflation was low it was down to prudence, sound policies and good management. The current high inflation is down to global market conditions and changes in the economy worldwide - fingers crossed for next month!

John, London, UK

Well put Michael from nz, It is about time that "New labour" face facts, no more trying to prop up the housing market, and start to control inflation. Give up some thing to work on, rise interest rates make the pound strong, and get a grip on the price of goods again. And lower the tax on fuel !!

oliver, earls colne,

It is extremely disturbing that our Government has failed to see and act on years of signals that key elements necessary for any economy to prosper were predictably at dangerous low stock levels. Food and fuel inflation could have been avoided in the Uk with a little vision. There is worse to come.

Andrew , York, Yorkshire

Lowering interest rates in the US made no difference. Why would it be different in the UK? The BoE has stuffed itself. They do not know what to do. All markets will have to find their own comfort levels.

5 years TOO LATE to start any sort of control now!

Paul, London, Canada

Wow, you call that a Rocket? I can just about remember the 70's and 80's! The government must not give in to public sector pay demands in excess of this; we might all have to take a relative drop in income, but it'll be worth it in the medium term.

Robin Laundon, Cambridge, UK

And this is Gordon's massaged measure of inflation. Who says we are not back in the middle-late 1970's?. In which case, it will get much worse before it gets better.....happliy this dooms Gordon to a legacy of obscurity, as the economy will not turn around before the next election.

clive, epsom, surrey,

The silver lining is that pensions are related to the RPI figure; so lets have a bit of rampant inflation to help the elderly.

john, milton keynes,

I believe that the MPC is in denial in the same way that the house owners are in denial about falling prices.

WAKE UP!

Inflation is racing away, destroying savings and pensions. The MPC must act now and fast, increase the interest rates.

Bob Travels, Stevenage,

The remit of the BOE is to control inflation acording to the Chancellor; but they are currently doing nothing to save the economy where a proactive approach in lowering interest rates is the sensible action. The views of the business community are paramount and the CPI limit should go up to 5%.

john, milton keynes,

What is the point of having a 2% inflation target if the BOE is continually scared of applying measures to control it. The housing market is long passed saving and they must now focus on getting back to 2%.

Chris, Banbury,

CPI's now a colossal 90% above the government's target and up a massive near 16% in one MONTH! and yet no rate hike...

jollytall, Ipswich,

Environmentalists are at the root of this depression (oil 2nd) food prices are spiralling especially 'meat', grain sourced feed has rocketed, due to the promotion of biofuels, land set aside for fuel instead of food crops, they should hang their head in shame as they are the real enemies of the poor

Sam, Glasgow,

Can somebody with a smidgeon of honesty give all of us a realistic rate of inflation based on the same parameters used under previous governments and not the meaningless rates that the current shower keep pumping out?

philip, Ipswich,

I'm given the impression that the most accurate figure to all those in reality is 4.8%.

Andreas Andreou, Nottingham,

"rocketing" to 3.8%?? A very feeble rocket.

William, Ilkley,

Oil prices is the root cause of all these problems. The goverment should of addressed this issue long time ago.

Caan Reis, Herts, UK

Sir,
<br/>
<br/>I have just returned from that Cloud Cuckoo land Zimbabwe, inflation at, I don't know, millions of percent.
<br/>
<br/>The guys there literally buy a dozen beers at a time in the pub because by the time you have finished the first the price has increased 50%.

Richard Sixsmith, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

did anyone in the right mind think anything else?the government excludes energy and food costs from calculating inflation and that makes the difference.when everyone was feeling the pinch from high fuel and food prices the government and the bank of england insisted that inflation was under control

ebbi britt, valencia , spain

Well the real rate of inflation on the ground is more like 10% - 15%. The cost of food, energy, petrol i.e. The essentials has gone up much faster than 3.9%. We have already cut out the luxuries like holiday, new TV, DVD's etc. We need an index that represents the essentials in life.

Keith Sloan, Nr Winchester, UK

Unless your getting an annual pay rise of at least 10% inflation is robbing you of you income.

Labour is completely to blame here, for without their housing bubble interest rates could have risen without cauing a crisis. As it is a rise of 1 to 2% looks certain to implode the housing market.

A Harris, Kettering, UK

It's very tiring hearing about an 'inflation rate' that applies to almost none of us. If you don't live in the UK, i.e. you don't rent or own a property, then the CPI is a valid measure of 'inflation'. Otherwise the RPI is the real rate of inflation. Please can you use the RPI in future?

Peter Goodman, Farnham, Surrey

Michael in New Zealand. I have a reasonable mortgage, comfortably attained, a small amount on my CC and a good job in management. I'm dying here. My kids are in Child poverty levels and I can't cut back anymore than I have. Put rates up? It's all fuel and Gordy doing this. No ones buying anything!

James, Glasgow,

The differing oficial rates are there to confuse. It is the usual smoke and mirrors . In fact none of them are near the rate of inflation for a family.

Brian Mc Caughey, Bury, Lancashire

The economy is about to fall of a cliff. Inflation is about food and fuel which cannot be controlled by interest rates.
Cut rates now by1.5% or switch the lights out as the last working man leaves.

Brian Anderson, Edinburgh,

3.8% ?

Real inflation for real people is about 3-4 times that and has been for over a year.

Jon Leigh, Southern, France

we are a goverment who will not go throught the boom and bust economics wonder who said that

dave, enfield, uk

Having lied about inflation for so long it is becoming difficult to cover up the real figures. Welcome to the legacy of a labour government. Don't be fooled by Brown's bleatings about a world problem and external forces. This is just as much home grown by excessive debt, both government and personal

Edward, London,

Be very careful dealing with percentage price rises. Remember a 5% rise this year, is a greater amount of cash increase, than would have been a 5% rise last year.Don't let the government mislead you! Comparisons are odious.

David Vinter, Louth, Lincs,, UK.

"The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 3.8 per cent... core inflation rose to 1.6 per cent... RPI inflation rose to 4.6 per cent... RPIX inflation rose to 4.8 per cent."

What an utter waste of taxpayers' money to create so many different measures of inflation - which only serve to confuse us!

Max, London,

Yet again Inflation soars above targets, predictions and any funnel of doubt.

And yet again the MPC says it will fall soon.

And yet another letter will be written.

And yet more pensioners will slip into poverty.

And yet more pounds are needed to buy anything.

And yet rates DON'T RISE!

Michael, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Can some kind person from the Bank of England explain to me how the CPI has only increased by half a per cent (.5%). All staple food items and essentials goods/services are shooting up by double digit increases. Poll Tax 5% plus. Where do they get these silly CPI figures from?

Richie, Cardiff, Wales

3.8%? It's still nowhere near the actual figure felt by your average joe on the street. As a 24 year old, earning the average British salary, my inflation figure for the past 12 months is around the 35% figure. Petrol has gone up 24p, food is up around 40% on average, and bills are up a good 30-40%

Phil Burton, Walsall,

It seems Gordon Brown and the Governor of the bank of England will have to introduce a new inflation measure as the CPI is getting too high. What about GFI (Gordon Fiddled Index) and a rule that it will only allow items that have decreased in price - hence a 0% GFI.

Richie, Cardiff, Wales

And if you cut out the electrical items that you do not have to buy,then inflation for most families/pensioners, is 10% plus.
Rates are being set on misleading inflation data,and do not address the real life inflation problem.Little wonder that inflation is not being controlled.

jackie, paphos, cyprus