Artificially increasing the rate could help to inflate profits; lowering it could suggest that a bank was in better financial health than it was.

We complain about the price of gas only when the bills arrive, or one of the companies serving us reports particularly inflated profits.

With finance harder to access, companies that are under pressure from shareholders may try to boost results artificially by inflating profits, deflating losses or bringing sales forward.

An investigation found that senior executives had ordered managers to inflate profits.

The recent deregulation of most stamp prices, combined with a need to vastly inflate profits for investors, can only add up to signficant price increases and rural service cuts.