The Central Bank and its European partner, the ECB, had little in the way of cheer for the Government this week. Both warned in words more explicit than usual that the State was stoking up the fires of inflation.

Indeed, they seem to have given up on the idea that there is a path away from trouble following another expansionary Budget. If anything, they seem content to let us know how strongly they disapprove of fiscal policy and then to sit back and let us discover for ourselves in time the scale of our folly.

True, falling oil prices and a rising euro should combat the two external elements most often cited as the root cause of our level of inflation. But, if the central banks are to be believed, that is unlikely to be enough to offset some of the domestically fuelled rise in prices that lie ahead.