Many of the lucky pensioners who are beneficiaries of final salary schemes will have been able to shrug off the surge in inflation to 3.2% in August. After all, their pension payments will mostly be automatically uprated by some link to the rise in retail prices.

But for the trustees of pension schemes, that inflation-linked promise is a huge headache. It means they must be confident that the assets in their funds will be able to cover the payments to beneficiaries, whatever happens to retail prices in the future.