Equally important, it is not clear how much of an effect a one-off rebate will have on consumption, or how quickly that effect will come through.

ECONOMIST: The economy

"It's a source of marriage breakdown, of stress, of people being ill, being off work - the knock-on effect of people wrestling with unmanageable debt in their lives can be massive, " he says.

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In effect these types of measures represent on-off negative supply shocks on inflation, taking it lower, says Tony Volpon, managing director at Nomura Securities in New York.

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