Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on UK inflation hitting 2 percent for the first time in almost 3 years

Over in the UK, inflation has hit the Reserve Bank's target for the first time in nearly three years.

Prices rose by 2 percent in the year to May, down from the previous 2.3 percent.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says these stats will likely come into play ahead of July's general election.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray UK corresponds with us now even in Gavin,
Hi there, Heather, brilliant news for you guys. Your inflation's
back down to the two percent mark.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, it's been sometime getting there. Two percent is the
target that the Bank of England has been set, the
ones that control the interest rates, and that decision as
well is now going to be an interesting one after
these figures came out, So it marks a fall from
two point three percent, and it's the month ago the
Prime Minister had called a general election on the day

(00:29):
April's inflation figures showed a continued decline. This will really
add to the debate about the economy and whose hands
it is safest in as we rattle towards our general
election in less than two weeks now. So the set
of figures for may Do, however, show a headline rate
of inflation at two percent, and that is below most

(00:51):
of the rest of the G seven the advanced economies
apart from Italy and food prices though are still twenty
five percent high rather than at the beginning of twenty
twenty two. Petrol prices are on the way up again,
so underlying figures for services inflation and core inflation are
what lots of people look at, and they are a

(01:12):
lot higher three point five percent of core inflation and
five point seven for services. So you know, inflation is
a difficult topic, but it's one that will give this
government a shot in the arm, though the opinion polls
suggests they are going to be wiped out at the
general election on the fourth of July.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Totally. Hey, these allegations against the UK's richest family in
Switzerland sound pretty serious.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yes, so, I mean you might think that the Royal
family is perhaps the richest family in the UK. You
would be wrong. It is the Hinduja family. They are
a family of business people and they have an estimated
wealth of roughly seventy eight billion New Zealand dollars. However,
they're in Switzerland and in court accused of exploitation and

(01:55):
human trafficking. Basically this relates to the fact or they
have imported others from India to look after their children
and household and it's alleged that Prakash and Camal Hinduja,
together with their son Aj and his wife, have confiscated
their passports and paid them as little as roughly sixteen
New Zealand dollars for an eighteen hour day and allowed

(02:18):
them little freedom to leave the house. Now they've reached
a financial settlement over the exploitation bit, but it's the
trafficking charges, which are very serious in Switzerland, which are
what is now up for grabs and being debated in court.
They deny any wrongdoing, but the court has heard that
they are hardly the servants are hardly allowed to leave

(02:40):
the house and only with the permission of the Indujas,
and that some would say is effectively human trafficking. And
so this case likely to go on for a few
more days.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
And speaking of rich people, how has this Arius's fortune
being divided up?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, this is an amazing story. So a lady called
Marlene Engel, who's thirty two years old, made headlines in
January because she's being inheriting some forty five million New
Zealand dollars worth. And she's turned around and said, actually,
do you know what I don't want it. It's money
from my grandmother. I haven't worked for it. I don't

(03:18):
think that we should have such inheritance laws in the
UK where you can inherit so much money. And so
she set up a momentum Institute, which effectively looked at
a group of fifty people to work out how to
distribute the millions that she's inherited. And now we know
where it's going to go. And it's a fascinating list

(03:41):
of different organizations seventy seven in total, as you would
can imagine charities but also think tanks dealing with a
range of environmental protection, education, integration, health and social issues,
as well as poverty and homelessness. In Austria. The smallest
donation is roughly for eighty thousand New Zealand dollars for

(04:02):
an initiative to support database reporting on climate change, but
as I said, the total amount being given way is
over roughly the forty five million New Zealand dollar mark,
quite amazing. For more from hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen
live to news talks.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
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