February 26, 2010
LONDON (Reuters) - Mervyn King must be cheesed off. The Bank of England Governor had to write another letter on Tuesday to the government explaining why inflation was so high -- and cauliflowers were partly to blame.
Used in that staple of British cuisine, cauliflower cheese, the vegetable had a "large upward effect" on the main inflation rate which rose to 3.5 percent last month, its highest since November 2008, according to official statisticians.
The main reason was because severe weather hit crops in both Britain and France hard this year. Old white potatoes also had an upward impact on inflation as did frozen garden peas.
Cucumbers, however, had a cooling effect.
