text: Schembri delivered his speech when the latest CPI-common inflation rate was 1.4% for December, barely up from 1.3% in November. This November 2016 rate was the lowest recorded for this hapless measure since May 1996, and much lower than any other measure of core inflation. Also, he claims that it is just a mystery to the Bank, which heavily promoted the common component of CPI measure prior to the 2016 renewal agreement, why it is so low. Two things that he might consider are that the common component measure is strongly weighted towards the mortgage interest cost index (-0.5% inflation rate in November) and very weakly weighted towards the purchase of passenger vehicles (3.0%). It is hard to think of any combination of attributes that would more completely disqualify an index as a measure of underlying inflation.