Soaring UK inflation has caught institutional investors napping. They had no need to worry about it for almost two decades but in the past three years the consumer price index has jumped from around 1.8% to 5% this month.

Central bank manipulation of interest rates, strong demand from Brazil, Russia, India and China for commodities and stimulus from quantitative easing have converged to push up inflation - and ring alarm bells for those investors not prepared for a changing monetary landscape.