Alarm bells ring as ag inflationary pressures start to build

摘要

I'm showing my age when I say that I remember what hyper-inflation feels like. I was still an 11-year-old schoolboy in 1970, when Ted Heath's Conservative government embarked on a reckless "dash for growth" to kick-start the economy by borrowing heavily to fund a huge financial stimulus.Not long after, oil prices soared, quadrupling in price, producing conditions that were perfect for inflation to take off. UK annual inflation rose from 5 in 1970 to 24 by 1974, and was still as high as 18 by 1979.For farmers, the effect of this sustained period of very high inflation throughout the 1970s was profound. The decade was littered with financial casualties.