asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection what is the current rate of inflation, based upon a grossing-up to an annual rate of the last three months' increase in the retail price index, and calculated on the same basis as the three-monthly figure of 8·4 per cent. quoted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as being the grossed-up annual rate of inflation for August 1974.

As my right hon. Friend told the House on 28th April, the latest grossed-up annual rate based on the last three months' increase in the RPI is 25·6 per cent.