Households are facing a continued squeeze on their spending power after a leading forecaster warned that high inflation was here to stay. The Ernst & Young Item Club, which uses the Treasury's model of the UK economy for its forecasts, estimates that persistently high inflation has already knocked almost 3% off UK growth in the last three years. It expects inflationary pressures to peak over the summer and said it is unlikely the CPI measure will dip below 2.5% over the next four years. While the UK economy is showing signs of recovery, the Bank of England warned last week that inflation is not expected to fall ... (full story)