Confounded expectations

From today's Times....

Shop prices rose during March as the weak pound continued to push up the cost of food, new figures showed today. Shop price inflation edged up for the fourth month in a row to 2 per cent March from 1.9 per cent in February, data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed.

The findings emerged after official data confounded expectations that the country would slump into deflation in February, as CPI inflation unexpectedly ticked up to 3.2 per cent from 3 per cent.