All depends on whether you are a public or private sector worker.

And which spreadsheet the Tories are singing from……

Yesterday Rishi Sunak declared that there is “light at the end of the tunnel” as new figures showed that British workers benefited from the fastest rise in basic pay since 2001 in the second quarter of the year. Official data shows that average weekly pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 7.8 per cent in the three months to June, on a par with inflation (8.2% for private sector, 6.2% for public sector). He added: people would soon start to see the benefits with wages growing faster than prices.

Yet throughout the lengthy industrial disputes with teachers, NHS workers and other public sector employees, ministers have repeatedly warned that meeting their demands could exacerbate the UK’s inflation problem.

Expectations are that inflation will fall by a smidgeon but then rise again in the autumn prompting fears over more interest rate rises.